Parker Review

Parker (Jason Statham) is a thief with a unique code of professional ethics. After doing a heist at the Ohio State Fair with four other associates, he is double-crossed by them for not wanting to do another heist. His crew shoots him, and leaves him for dead on a country road. When he awakens, he assumes a new disguise and forms an unlikely alliance with a real estate agent (Jennifer Lopez) in order to hijack the score of the crew’s latest heist, so he can get his revenge.

Parker is an adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel “Flashfire, which is the 19th novel in the Parker series. However, it comes across as another Jason Statham movie. Nevertheless, that is not a bad thing. All of Statham’s movies are somewhat formulaic, but I surprisingly liked this one better than his recent efforts. It is fast paced with mindless action, and entertaining despite the film being almost two hours long. Statham has a great screen presence and in league with action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis.

The movie’s strong points are the action scenes, which are filmed quite brilliantly. The fight scenes are brutal, intense, and well choreographed. The editing is a little too frenetic at times, so it can be hard to tell what is going on. In addition, Jennifer Lopez’s character distracts from the movie at times, and is nothing but eye candy for the target audience. If the movie just focused on Parker, then I think this could have been a stronger film.

Parker looks like your average Jason Statham movie and it is. However, it is exhilarating and action-packed despite its underdeveloped characters and formulaic story.

Parker - 3/5