Fight Club
October 18th, 2008
Palahniuk's novel was optioned by producer Laura Ziskin, who hired Uhls to write the script for the film. Several directors were sought to film Fight Club; David Fincher was hired to direct based on his interest in the project despite previous difficulties with the studio 20th Century Fox. Fincher worked with writer Jim Uhls to develop the script, seeking advice from others in the film industry and his own cast members. Fincher described Fight Club as black comedy that applies heavy satire; he and the cast also compared the film to The Graduate (1967) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Thematically, the film was intended to represent the conflict between a generation of young people and the value system of advertising. The film's use of violence in the fight clubs was intended to serve as a metaphor for feeling based on the generation's conflict. The director carried homoerotic overtones over from Palahniuk's novel to implement in the film, believing that the overtones would make audiences uncomfortable and thereby keep them from anticipating the twist ending.
Studio executives were not receptive to the film, and they altered Fincher's intended marketing campaign to try to recoup perceived losses. Fight Club failed to meet expectations at the box office, and the film received polarized reactions from film critics. The film was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. It was perceived as crossing a milestone for visual style in cinema and introducing a new mood in American political life. The film later found commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film. The film has also permeated American society, inspiring people to set up fight clubs.
The narrator (Edward Norton) is an automobile company employee who travels to accident sites to perform product recall cost appraisals. His doctor refuses to write a prescription for his insomnia and instead suggests that he visit a support group for testicular cancer victims in order to appreciate real suffering. By attending the group, the narrator feels distraught at the condition of these ill fated people and breaks down. He is then able to sleep soundly and subsequently fakes more illnesses so he can attend other support groups in order to get out his pent up emotions through crying. The narrator's routine is disrupted when he begins to notice another impostor, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), at the same meetings and his insomnia returns.
During a flight for a business trip, the narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), who is a soap salesman. The narrator arrives home to find his apartment has been destroyed by an explosion. He calls Tyler and meets him at a bar. Tyler agrees to let the narrator stay at his home on the condition that the narrator hits him. The narrator complies and the two end up enjoying a fist fight outside the bar. The narrator moves into Tyler's dilapidated house and the two return to the bar, where they have another fight in the parking lot. After attracting a crowd, they establish a 'fight club' in the bar's basement.
When Marla overdoses on Xanax, she is rescued by Tyler and the two embark upon a sexual relationship. Tyler tells the narrator never to talk about him with Marla. Under Tyler's leadership, the fight club becomes "Project Mayhem," which commits increasingly destructive acts of anti-capitalist vandalism in the city. The fight clubs become a network for Project Mayhem, and the narrator is left out of Tyler's activities with the project. After an argument, Tyler disappears from the narrator's life and when a member of Project Mayhem dies on a mission, the narrator attempts to shut down the project. Tracing Tyler's steps, he travels around the country to find that fight clubs have been started in every major city, where one of the participants identifies him as Tyler Durden. A phone call to Marla confirms his identity and he realizes that Tyler is an alter ego of his own split personality. Tyler appears before him and explains that he controls the narrator's body whenever he is asleep.
The narrator faints and awakes to find Tyler has made several phone calls during his blackout and traces his plans to the downtown headquarters of several major credit card companies, which Tyler intends to destroy in order to cripple the financial networks. Failing to find help with the police, many of whom are members of Project Mayhem, the narrator attempts to disarm the explosives in the basement of one of the buildings. He is confronted by Tyler, knocked unconscious, and taken to the upper floor of another building to witness the impending destruction. The narrator, held by Tyler at gunpoint, realizes that in sharing the same body with Tyler, he is the one who is actually holding the gun. He fires it into his mouth, shooting through the cheek without killing himself. The illusion of Tyler collapses with an exit wound to the back of his head. Shortly after, members of Project Mayhem bring a kidnapped Marla to the narrator and leave them alone. The bombs detonate and, holding hands, the two witness the destruction of the entire financial city block through the windows.
The DVD for Fight Club was one of the first to be supervised by the film's director and was released in two editions. Working on the DVD for Fight Club was a way for the director to finish his vision for the film. 20th Century Fox's senior vice president of creative development, Julie Markell, explained how the DVD packaging complemented the vision: "The film is meant to make you question. The package, by extension, tries to reflect an experience that you must experience for yourself. The more you look at it, the more you'll get out of it." The packaging was developed for two months by the studio. The single-disc edition included a commentary track, while the two-disc special edition included the commentary track, multiple behind-the-scenes clips, deleted scenes, trailers, public service announcements, the promotional music video "This is Your Life", Internet spots, still galleries, cast biographies, story boards, and publicity materials. When the two-disc special edition DVD was first released, it was physically packaged to look covered in brown cardboard wrapper. Markell elaborated, "We wanted the package to be simple on the outside, so that there would be a dichotomy between the simplicity of brown paper wrapping and the intensity and chaos of what's inside." 20th Century Fox's vice president of marketing, Deborah Mitchell, described the design: "From a retail standpoint, has incredible shelf-presence."
Fight Club won the 2000 Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best DVD, Best DVD Commentary, and Best DVD Special Features, while Entertainment Weekly ranked the film's two-disc edition #1 in its 2001 list of "The 50 Essential DVDs", giving top ratings to the DVD's content and technical picture-and-audio quality. In 2004, after the two-disc edition went out of print, the studio decided to re-release it due to fans' requests. The film grossed $55 million in video and DVD rentals. In March 2007, a two-disc DVD edition was also released in the UK, featuring four audio commentaries and restoring the two scenes previously cut by the British Board of Film Classification.
Fight Club was considered one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. The film has been perceived as the forerunner of a new mood in American political life. Like other 1999 films Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, and Three Kings, Fight Club has been recognized as an innovator in cinematic form and style due to its exploitation of new developments in film-making technology.Following its initial release, Fight Club grew in popularity via word of mouth, and the positive reception of the DVD established it as a cult film that Newsweek conjectured would enjoy "perennial" fame. The success of the film has also propelled the novel's author Chuck Palahniuk to global renown.
The film has spawned several actual fight clubs in America since its release. A "Gentleman's Fight Club" was started in Menlo Park, California in 2000 and has members mostly from the high tech industry. Teens and preteens in Texas, New Jersey, Washington state, and Alaska also initiated fight clubs and posted videos of their fights online, leading authorities to break up the clubs. In 2006, an unwilling participant from a local high school was injured at a fight club in Arlington, Texas, and the DVD sales of the fight led to the arrest of six teenagers. An unsanctioned fight club was also started at Princeton University, and matches were held on campus. The film has also been suspected of influencing Luke Helder, a college student who planted pipe bombs in mailboxes in 2002. Helder's goal was to create a smiley pattern on the map of the United States, similar to the scene in Fight Club in which a building is vandalized to have a smiley on its exterior.
According to actor Edward Norton, one of his former professors from Yale University has reported being inundated with dissertations about Fight Club. The film has also been used as an academic tool at Northern Arizona University to introduce students to rhetorical analysis and argumentation. In addition, the film has been parodied in a re-cut trailer that converted the storyline into a "quirky love story" between Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter's characters, being "dominated by a distinctly nonprofessional voiceover"
In 2004 and 2006, Fight Club was voted by Empire readers as the ninth and eighth greatest film of all time, respectively, while the UK film magazine Total Film ranked Fight Club as "The Greatest Film of our Lifetime" in 2007 during the magazine's tenth anniversary. In 2007, Premiere selected Tyler Durden's line, "The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club," as the 27th greatest movie line of all time.
Terminator 3
May 17th, 2008
Huge budget, huge fanbase, huge actors, huge directing team and - a huge movie!
Here's a small review about this movie. After the failure of Skynet to kill Sarah Connor before her son is born, and to kill John himself as a child, it sends back another Terminator in a last attempt before Judgment Day to wipe out as many resistance officers as possible, including John and his future wife.
Because of the events shown in the second film, Judgment Day did not occur as originally predicted. However, John Connor (Nick Stahl) still doesn't believe the future war has been totally averted. He is living "off-the-grid," in Los Angeles, California with no permanent residence, credit cards, or mobile phone, and is working freelance so he can't be tracked. Skynet sends another Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), back to July 24, 2004, Judgment Day, to kill the human resistance's future lieutenants, because Connor could not be located through any information databases. The T-X, later dubbed the "Terminatrix", is armed with a full arsenal of advanced weapons from the future, avoiding the restriction of non-living tissue by carrying them internally, including the ability to remotely control most machines.
As before, a reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), identical to the Terminators from the previous films, has been sent back in time to protect Connor and his future wife, Katherine Brewster (Claire Danes). In a plot twist, this particular Terminator killed John Connor in 2032, before being reprogrammed and sent back in time by Connor's wife. After rescuing them from an initial attack, the Terminator leads them to Sarah Connor's coffin, which her friends filled with weapons in the event that Judgment Day was not prevented. The T-X and the police arrive, and the three narrowly escape in a hearse.
After the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems in T2, the Air Force has taken over the Skynet project as part of its Cyber Research Systems division, headed by General Robert Brewster, Kate's father. In an attempt to stop the spread of a computer supervirus, they activate Skynet, allowing it to invade all of their systems. John, Kate, and the Terminator arrive just a few minutes too late to stop them. The T-1 terminators, under control of the T-X, start killing office personnel. John, believing that Judgment Day can still be stopped, asks where the Skynet system core is, and just before General Brewster dies, he tells John and Kate to go to Crystal Peak, a base built into a mountain.
As they board a plane to leave, they are attacked by the Terminator, which was taken over by the T-X. To avoid killing Connor, he shuts himself down. When they reach Crystal Peak, they are attacked once again by the T-X. Suddenly, a helicopter comes crashing through the front wall and into the T-X. The Terminator has managed to reboot himself and regain control. The T-X detaches its legs as they are stuck underneath the helicopter, quickly crawling after John and Kate. The Terminator manages to catch hold of it and save John and Kate by detonating its last remaining hydrogen fuel cell in the T-X's mouth, destroying them both.
John and Kate discover that the base does not house the Skynet core. It is a Cold War era fallout shelter for government VIPs (including a podium for the President). General Brewster sent them there to protect them. There is no Skynet core; Skynet is software running on thousands of computers throughout the world, making Judgment Day unavoidable. Skynet launches nuclear missiles, starting the war of human versus machine. Foreshadowing Connor's future leadership role, when the confused military forces from Montana Civil Defense and amateur radio operators ask for orders, he picks up the radio and takes command.
James Cameron announced T3 many times during the 1990s, but without coming out with any finished script. During his divorce with Linda Hamilton, she asked for the Terminator franchise rights which she promptly sold to Carolco Pictures owners Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. Tedi Serafian wrote a script, but as it would cost over $300 million, it was rejected. Serafian earned a "story" credit after screenwriters John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris used some of his ideas, like Sarah Connor being dead, and the rival Terminator being female.
The studios had long wanted to make a sequel to the Terminator films. However, they weren't sure that Arnold Schwarzenegger would appear in it. Schwarzenegger initially refused to star in Terminator 3 because James Cameron, who created the character and directed the first two films, would not be directing the third installment. Schwarzenegger tried to persuade Cameron to produce the third film. Cameron declined, however, and feeling that the Terminator character was as much Schwarzenegger's as it was his own, he advised Schwarzenegger to just do the third film, and ask for "nothing less than $30 million."
The movie's final production budget was $187.3 million, making it the most expensive independently-produced movie in history. Schwarzenegger had to spend $6 million of his own money to help fund the production of the movie. It was a scene that he himself wanted to put in the movie, as he explains in the audio commentary. Schwarzenegger agreed to defer part of his salary in order to prevent the relocation of the set to Vancouver, British Columbia from Los Angeles. Many pundits saw this as preparation to his campaign for California governor, in which he emphasized giving incentives to have movie productions stay in California, rather than film in less-expensive places elsewhere. In that vein, the film was markedly "cleaner" than previous Terminator films, featuring significantly less violence and swearing.
The film takes several ideas from the novel T2: Infiltrator by S. M. Stirling. The novel, published in 2001, features a female terminator, the I-950, a plot point later reused in Terminator Rewired. The idea of Judgment Day being postponed was also used in the book. It also inspires the Sgt. Candy scene with its own explanation of the Terminator's physical appearance, in the form of Austrian counter-terrorist Dieter von Rossbach.
Filming began on April 12, 2002.
A scene filmed during production explains why one series of Terminators all look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. A character named Chief Master Sergeant William Candy (played by Schwarzenegger) explains in an Air Force promotion video he was chosen to be the model of the Terminator project. Schwarzenegger's character has a Southern accent. When General Brewster questions it, another scientist replies (in a Schwarzenegger voice over), "We can fix it." The actor portraying this scientist is Jack Noseworthy. It was included in early prints of the film, but was later deleted. This scene is available as a special feature on the DVD version.
Spider-Man 2
April 19th, 2008
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, David Koepp and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It saw the return of Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson and James Franco as Harry Osborn.
It is set two years after the original. It focuses on Peter Parker struggling to manage both his personal life and his duties as Spider-Man. The main villain in this film is Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), who turns insane following a failed experiment and the death of his wife. Using his mechanical tentacles, Octavius is dubbed "Doctor Octopus" and threatens to endanger the lives of the people of New York City.
The film was released on June 30, 2004 in the United States, and received mostly positive reviews from critics. It grossed over $783 million worldwide, and won an Academy Award for Visual Effects. The film's success led to another sequel, Spider-Man 3.
The story begins two years from where the previous film ends, and Peter Parker is finding his double life increasingly difficult. Precariously struggling to balance his crime-fighting duties with the demands of his normal life, Peter often finds his personal life taking a back seat. He loses a job, faces financial difficulties, and struggles to maintain his physics studies. Moreover, he has become estranged from both love interest Mary Jane and best friend Harry Osborn, and Aunt May is threatened with foreclosure.
Harry, now head of Oscorp's research division, has invested in the research of brilliant scientist Otto Octavius, Peter's idol. To perform a sustained fusion experiment, Octavius has developed a set of artificially intelligent mechanical arms, which are impervious to heat and magnetism. Though the experiment overloads and becomes unstable, Dr. Octavius refuses to halt it, with devastating results: his wife is killed; the neural inhibitor chip which enabled him to control the arms is destroyed; and the arms are fused to his spine. Uncontrolled, the tentacles begin to influence Octavius' mind, playing on his vanity and ego, and he decides he must complete his experiment at any cost. J. Jonah Jameson names him Doctor Octopus or "Doc Ock." Doc Ock attempts to rob a bank where Peter Parker and his Aunt May happen to be present. After a short glitch in his powers, Spider-Man manages to take back most of the stolen money, but Doc Ock takes Aunt May as a hostage. When Spider-Man rescues her, she revises her former opinion of him and realizes that he is a hero.
During a party, Peter learns that M.J. is planning to marry John Jameson, and Harry lashes out at him in a drunken rage due to his loyalty to Spider-Man; shortly afterwards he loses his powers while web-slinging across town. Meanwhile, Doc Ock rebuilds his experimental reactor. Peter questions if he could ever have what he "needs," a life as Peter Parker, which involves a vision of Uncle Ben, and resolves to give up being Spider-Man. Back home, after visiting Uncle Ben's grave, Aunt May is distressed by Peter's confession that he was somewhat responsible for his Uncle Ben's death. Aunt May and Peter reconcile, and she tells Peter of the hope that Spider-Man brings to others, in spite of what dreams he may have to sacrifice. Peter attempts to re-connect with Mary Jane, but she informs him it is too late. In the meantime, Doc Ock has completed rebuilding his reactor, and needs one final item: the tritium which fuels the reactor. He goes to Harry Osborn for it, dangling him over the edge of the Osborn mansion balcony when he refuses. Harry agrees to give Ock what he needs in exchange for capturing Spider-Man. Mary Jane meets Peter in a coffee shop to ask if he still loves her, but Peter tells her that he does not. Amidst this exchange, the two are ambushed by Doctor Octopus, who abducts Mary Jane in a ploy to lure Spider-Man into a trap. Peter's powers return, and he dons his costume and engages Doc Ock in battle, culminating with the insane scientist forcing Spider-Man to rescue a runaway subway train.
Spider-Man manages to stop the train before it can plunge over the end of the track, but at great physical exertion. Weak, he is captured by Doctor Octopus and delivered to Harry Osborn. Harry unmasks Spider-Man and is stunned to discover that his sworn enemy is also his best friend. Peter awakens and convinces Harry to reveal Octavius' whereabouts so he can rescue Mary Jane. Spider-Man finds Doctor Octavius in an abandoned warehouse on a waterfront pier, where he's restarted his fusion experiment. After battling with Doc Ock, Spider-Man manages to stun the villain with an electric shock. Peter then reveals his true identity to Octavius and pleads with him to stop the machine. Returned to his senses and determined to end his doomsday experiment before it causes more harm, Octavius uses his mechanical arms to collapse the floor of the building, successfully drowning the device at the cost of his own life. Mary Jane sees Peter without his mask on, but Peter tells her they can never be together, as he will always have enemies.
Across town, Harry has visions of his father, the late Norman Osborn, in a hanging mirror. The hallucination demands that his son kill Peter Parker to avenge his death. Harry refuses and hurls a dagger at the mirror, shattering it and revealing a secret room, containing the Green Goblin's war gear. At the end of the film, Mary Jane leaves her wedding and finds Peter in his apartment, telling him that she has decided to be with him — despite the risks. She persuades Peter to finally let her in while accepting the need of his vows by letting him respond to a sudden call for help.
Spider-Man 2 was shot on over 100 sets and locations, beginning with a pre-shoot on the Loop in Chicago during two days in November 2002. The crew bought a carriage, placing 16 cameras for background shots of Spider-Man and Doc Ock's train fight. Principal photography began on April 12, 2003 in New York City. The crew moved on May 13 to Los Angeles, shooting on 10 major sets created by producer designer Neil Spisak. After the scare surrounding his back pains, Tobey Maguire relished performing many of his stunts, even creating a joke of it with Raimi, creating the line "My back, my back" as Spider-Man tries to regain his powers. Even Rosemary Harris took a turn, putting her stunt double out of work. In contrast, Alfred Molina joked that the stunt team would "trick" him into performing a stunt time and again.
Filming was put on hold for eight weeks, in order to build Doc Ock's pier lair. It had been Spisak's idea to use a collapsed pier as Ock's lair, reflecting an exploded version of the previous lab and representing how Octavius' life had collapsed and grown more monstrous, evoking the cinema of Fritz Lang and the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Filming then resumed on that set, having taken 15 weeks to build, occupying Sony's Stage 30. It was 60 by 120 feet long, and 40 feet high, and a quarter-scale miniature was also built for the finale as it collapses. Filming was still going after Christmas 2003.
A camera system called the Spydercam was used to allow filmmakers to express more of Spider-Man's world view, at times dropping 50 stories (over 600 ft) and with shot lengths of just over 2400 feet (in New York) or 3200 feet (Los Angeles). For some shots the camera would shoot at six frames per second for a faster playback increasing the sense of speed. Shots using the Spydercam were pre-planned in digital versions of cities, and movement of the camera was controlled with motion control, making it highly cost-effective. The camera system was only used in the previous film for the final shot.
The film was initially released on DVD as a 2-disc special edition on November 30, 2004. It was available in full screen and widescreen, as well as a Superbit edition and in a box-set with the first film. There was also a collector's edition including a reprint of The Amazing Spider-Man #50.
An extended cut of the film, which is 8 minutes longer, was released as Spider-Man 2.1 on DVD on April 17, 2007. In addition to the new cut, the DVD also included new special features not on the original release, as well as a sneak preview of Spider-Man 3.
Transporter
March 25th, 2008
The film begins with Frank Martin (Statham), in his black BMW E38 735i, alone in a parking garage, he proceeds to start his car and drive to the site of his deal. Martin arrives at a building as four armed, masked men emerge, carrying bags filled with money. The four men get into the car; however, Martin refuses to start the car because they have changed the deal, in which it was agreed that there would be only three men. The leader of the men threatens Martin, but due to Martin's car being coded, there is no other option but to shoot one of the men and push him out of the car. A lengthy car chase follows in which Martin's driving skill allows escape from the chasing police cars. At the end of the chase the men offer Martin more money to drive them further, but their offer is refused because "that was not the deal."
Frank is next seen at his home along the coast of Southern France, cleaning his car. His parole officer, Tarconi (Berléand), stops by to inquire if Martin knows anything about a police chase involving the same type car that he owns, that took place the previous day. Martin denies that he does and Tarconi leaves. Martin receives a call from a man who is "looking for a transporter", Martin agrees to meet. Martin meets the man in a bar, where he explains his three rules:
"Never change the deal"
"No names"
"Never open the package"
A deal is agreed upon. The day of the deal, Martin picks up the package, which is placed in his trunk, and sets off on his route. While on the road, Martin gets a flat tire. He opens the trunk, to retrieve his spare tire, and finds that the package is moving. He pushes the package out of the way, and fixes the flat tire. After eating at a rest stop, he returns to the trunk and, breaking one of his own rules, he opens the package. Inside he finds a girl (Qi) who is tied up and has tape over her mouth. He slits the tape and allows her to drink through a straw. He then removes the tape, she says that she "has to pee," and asks him if he wants her to do so in his trunk. He agrees to let her go into the woods, for one minute. After tying a rope around her neck, he lets her walk into the woods. After one minute passes, Martin follows the rope into the woods to discover that the girl has escaped. He quickly tracks her down, ties her up and carries her back to the car, only to find that two police officers looking at his car on the side of the road. He defeats them at hand-to-hand combat, ties them up and puts them both in the trunk, along with the "package."
Martin arrives at the destination and delivers the package to its recipient (Schulze). The recipient asks him if he would mind transporting something for him, Martin accepts the offer. On his way home Martin stops at a rest stop, on his way back to his car it suddenly explodes. Martin returns to the house of the recipient and beats up all of his henchmen. He then steals a car, only to discover that hiding in the backseat is the "package" girl. He takes her to his home for the night. He questions her and she tells him that her name is "Lai."
The next morning Tarconi stops by again, and finds Lai, who claims that she is "the new cook." He explains that the police have found Martin's car, which had been blown up the previous day, and that they were still trying to sort out the remains of the two police officers, who had both been killed. Martin claims that his car was stolen, Lai backs him up saying that she picked him up walking along side the road. Tarconni leaves, telling the couple that they are to come by the station later that day to explain the truth.
A group of men arrive outside Martin's house, they proceed to destroy the house with gunfire, though Martin and Lai are able to escape via an underwater escape route. They swim until they reach another house where they make love. Later they go to the police station to see Tarconi, they tell him they went for a walk and the house had been destroyed when they had returned. Tarconi leaves and Lai uses his computer to track down her recipient who is Derren Bettencourt, but is only referred to as "Wall Street." They leave the police station, but Tarconi discovers that they had been searching for Wall Street.
Martin tries to walk away, but Lai protests that there are four hundred people being smuggled into the country by Wall Street, inside shipping containers, including her father and her sisters. Martin agrees to help her find him. They come to Wall Street's office, but Martin is surprised when Lai's father is revealed to be an accomplice in the smuggling. Martin is knocked out as Tarconi and the police arrive, unable to defend himself Martin is arrested. Tarconi questions Martin as to what is going on, Martin replies that people are being smuggled into the country and that if given the opportunity he could catch Wall Street and Lai's father. Tarconi agrees and they stage a hostage situation to get out of the police station and to the docks.
Martin continues alone and finds the shipping crates, in which the people are being smuggled. However, they are being moved and he has no choice, but to follow. Martin is discovered by Wall Street who tells his henchmen to kill him. After a lengthy hand-to-hand fight, Martin highjacks an airplane, he tells the pilot to fly over the trucks transporting the shipping containers. Martin skydives, landing on the containers and after a struggle to gain control of a truck, during which Wall Street is killed, he drives it off to the side of the road and stops it. Lai's father approaches him, holding a gun, and tells Martin to get out and walk. Martin follows these directions, the two have a conversation, during which Lai is heard yelling, which is cut off by a gunshot. As Lai's father aims his gun at Martin's chest, a shot is heard, though it is revealed that Lai has shot her father, and Martin remains unharmed. Tarconi arrives with the police, who open up the shipping container and free the captives within.
In the film, Jason Statham's character Frank Martin specifically identifies the car as a "1999 Black BMW 735i". In the DVD commentary, however, Jason Statham indicates that the car was a one-off manual-transmission 1999 7-Series 750iL, with a V12 engine. When Martin returns to Wall Street's estate, Frank drives away with a Mercedes-Benz W140 as a compensation for his BMW.
The Transporter was released to a mixed critical reception. Rotten Tomatoes has the film at an average rating of 54% and Metacritic has it listed at 51%. The consenus is that "The Transporter delivers the action at the expense of coherent storytelling." Manohla Dargis, of the Los Angeles Times, complimented the action saying, "[Statham] certainly seems equipped to develop into a mid-weight alternative to Vin Diesel. That's particularly true if he keeps working with director Cory Yuen, a Hong Kong action veteran whose talent for hand-to-hand mayhem is truly something to see." However, Roger Ebert's took the opposite stance stating, "Too much action brings the movie to a dead standstill." Eric Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle, says, "It's junk with a capital J. The sooner you realize that, the more quickly you can settle down to enjoying it."
