ParkerWhat starts out to be yet another bland but entertaining Statham actioner, soon descends into a real borefest. Jason Statham is one of those actors that you could watch attempting to make paint dry. However in Parker not even Statham's abundance of charisma can keep this movie about a left for dead thief out to get revenge seem interesting.Sharing top billing is Jennifer Lopez who adds nothing to this tedious movie other than flashing a little flesh. In fact it's probably where her character is introduced that's where the film begins to descend. In all fairness this is nothing to do with her performance yet the films slow pace. With a runtime of 1 hr 58 mins I forget just when Miss Lopez actually makes her first appearance. It was well into the movie and by then I had lost all investment in proceedings.Not even the action has any memorable scenes. Odd for such a action legend like Mr Statham. His fight scene with Martial arts movie veteran Daniel Bernhardt is lame and not to both actors usual standards. Couple this with Parker's seeming invincibility and the movie can't even be considered to be mildly believable. The guy gets dumped from a fast moving vehicle, shot multiple times, stabbed in the chest and hand, punched, kicked, thrown around like a rag doll and he doesn't so much as faint from copious amounts of blood loss. Eventually I just gave up on this movie and turned it off. I consider myself to be a Jason Statham fan but my interest just bled out.With a strong support including Nick Nolte, Clifton Collins Jr, Michael Chiklis and Glitch's Emma Booth you'd think something special could have developed here. Unfortunately this one won't stay in the memory banks for twenty four hours. In fact the only thing that may haunt me from this movie is Statham's hilarious Texas accent!

To be blunt, "Parker" doesn't work. It isn't thrilling enough to be the crime thriller it evidently wants to be and is not satisfying enough to be the rock-'em sock-'em actioner it seems to want to in part be as well. Its pace is unmeasured; its narrative loses us too many times; it doesn't seem to know what to do with its supporting characters and isn't funny when it's trying to be. Jason Statham is the titular Parker, a thief with very little background to him other than the fact he is English; possesses a vast experience in engaging in heists and is married to a woman who is the daughter of an elderly gentleman that seems to know the ins and outs of the coast-to-coast American criminal underworld. Aficionados will already know that he is based on a character going on 60 years old: Donald Westlake's (writing under the penname Richard Stark) rouge gangster-cum-thief Parker, who first appeared in the novel "The Hunter" and the film "Point Blank". Back then, he was played by Lee Marvin but has, over the years, undergone an array of modifications that has seen him depicted by people as somewhat diverse as Mel Gibson and Peter Coyote. Indeed, the last we saw of him was in 1999, when a troubled picture by the name of "Payback" was shoved into cinemas off the back of changes at the very top and a variety of re-shoots. In the meantime, he has appeared in a series of Darwyn Cooke graphic novels in the late 2000's which, from what I have seen, caught the mood and tone of a lot of what Stark wrote. "Parker" is brighter and breezier than much of its preceding kin; it is fluffier and more throwaway. The film, itself an adaptation of a book entitled Flashfire, which I have read, seems to be aware of who all the characters are but doesn't have the faintest idea in how to direct them around the screen. The opening heist is at an Ohio county-fair, where the money made on the day is targeted by Statham and four other goons: a black one; a balding sociopath; a wormy one who's only there because of who he's related to and a demolitions expert, whose role is much smaller than in the novel upon which this is based. We are informed fairly early on that Parker is not an animal, in that he takes time to calm down a nervous hostage where another may have killed them on the spot. From here, violent disagreements (unrealistically played out in a moving vehicle) lead the others way with Parker's share to another job they need the total haul to pay for, and this causes Parker to have to start from scratch in getting over an injury; finding clothes; a car and whatnot so as to eventually find his share. Statham, the wrong choice for the role, struggles with a character that is one-dimensional; flaccid and needs various shots of his scars to develop character. Stark's novel, neatly unfolded and indelibly written, provides all these people with the room they need to breath: the ditzy estate agent whose down on her luck looking to 'pull' the lead; the local Florida policeman who fancies her and thus threatens to rumble the plan she has with Parker the more he follows her around; the Latin-American forger who has his own problems; the gang of four who betrayed Parker in the first place and are now busy planning a new job; the anonymous assassin sent by the mafia to kill Parker after he interferes with their circles of influence.Taylor Hackford looks to paint a canvas of similarly broad scope of these characters; people and scenarios, but does not manage it. His film constantly feels as if it is in a rush to get where it's going, when tone and mood are what characterise film-noir. Parker's relationship with Jennifer Lopez's estate-agent is not tense or teasing enough to have us genuinely feel like he is torn between falling for this woman and remaining faithful to his existing partner, who are very much into one another. Its centrepiece, this quite gruelling fight scene in a hotel suite involving knifes; shower curtains and all the other elements, merely reminds you of a better crime film in "Eastern Promises". The great, overbearing thing hanging heavily over this film is the quite brilliant 1998 Steven Soderbergh film "Out of Sight" which, like "Parker", depicted a likable villain amidst a sea of psychopathic ones; provided its protagonist with an unlikely love interest and saw events dart from bleak industrial cities to sunny Florida hotspots. The casting of Lopez in this sense was poor judgement on the producer's behalf, who must have been aware how akin to Soderbergh's piece "Parker" would represent and that she played a role in making it as god as it was. I wanted to like "Parker" more than I did, but its existence is a sign of the times: flashy, shiny and colourful crime fiction featuring people ill-suited to the roles provided and unsure as to how to unfold a burning story because this is not the age of narrative film-making. If there is to be another Parker adaptation in the future, which I hope there will be, I would hope few people involved in this one have any say in how it turns out.

I have a mixed opinion about the leading British star best known for the Transporter films, he does the same thing almost every film, but I do quite often like them, and I was sure this one would be the same thing, directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil's Advocate, Ray). Basically Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief with a conscience and a code, he will not steal from the poor and hurt innocent people, his latest job is joining a crew of four men he doesn't know: Melander (The Shield's Michael Chiklis), Carlson (The Wire's Wendell Pierce), Ross (Crank: High Voltage's Clifton Collins Jr.), and Hardwicke (Micah Hauptman) in taking the gate money from the Ohio State Fair. They are successful, but Parker is disgusted when an innocent man is killed during, he sees it as unprofessional standards, he refuses to do another robbery with them and demands his cut, the crew refuse and decide to shoot Parker and leave him for dead. The crew are unaware that Parker is found by people passing, in hospital he has survived his beating, being shot, thrown from a moving car, and being shot again, after recovering he makes his way out of the hospital and vows to get back at the ones who tried to kill him, another one of his codes. Parker poses as a wealthy Texan businessman looking for a new high-price property, he hires real estate agent Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez) to show him around Palm Beach, Florida, in fact he is searching for the crew from a lead from his mentor Hurley (Nick Nolte) to a new heist they plan. Parker finds where the crew are holding up and plans his plot to get them, but they learn he is alive and contact the mob they are now working for, they send hit-man Kroll (Daniel Bernhardt) to take care of him, and Parker's girlfriend Claire (Emma Booth) gets herself caught in the middle as well. Leslie also finds out through researching that Parker was not who he said he was, she is intrigued by him and follows him, she is keen to help him in any way he can, not realising Parker plans to kill the men who betrayed him. The crew pull off another big robbery of valued jewellery, but Leslie and Parker find their hideout and the thief is able to kill the four men, he promises to help Leslie and her family get a better life, and in the end, months later she is shocked to have a delivery of thousands of dollars from Parker. Also starring Patti LuPone as Ascension, Leslie's mother and Ant- Man's Bobby Cannavale as Jake Fernandez. Statham does his usual hard man seeking vengeance well, Lopez certainly has the looks and curves, and Chiklis does well as the meanest of the villains, there is nothing new here, a man wants revenge on those who wronged him and kills them, but there are still some great bone-crunching fight and action sequences, it is a likable enough crime thriller. Worth watching!

It's just another mediocre thriller with Jason Statham, lots of action, fast paced, yet lacking essence and believable story, it doesn't make you care enough for whats going on. I didn't finish watching the movie, because I sort of understood how it will go, I guess it can entertain you for 2 hours if you have low expectations and play the movie just for the heck of it, but expecting some big thrill from this is just out of the question, its instant entertainment lasting no more than it plays, the moment it ends, it will fade away in your mind.Jason plays out his usual self, tough guy, fighter, the rest of cast did an OK job, apart from Michael Chiklis who's acting skills were really unsatisfactory.5/10