Parker - DVD Review

       If there is one thing you can say about Jason Statham, he goes out of his way to be in movies that give him more versatility.  At the very least, you can say that he won’t be typecast like Jean Claude Van Damn or Steven Seagal.  

        In his new movie, Parker, which was adopted from Donald Westlake’s book Flashfire under the pseudonym, Richard Stark, Parker is a professional thief that is double crossed by his crew and left for dead.  It’s an interesting plot because it was the same type of plot that was used in the first book called The Hunter.  

        If I had to compare Flashfire to The Hunter, I would say that I preferred The Hunter.  The book was much better to follow and there weren’t so many flashbacks that were in Flashfire.  

        I would say that the movie was better than the book.  It did follow the book without the flashbacks and if anything, what made the movie better was Jason Statham and his martial arts scenes.  Yes, you didn’t have that in the Parker series and Parker was considered a cold-blooded killer in the book who wouldn’t think anything of killing a woman either yet his character seemed to change in Flashfire.  

        There were parts added to the movie that weren’t in the book and I thought it made the movie better as well such as Hurley having a bigger part, which was good for Nick Nolte.  The plot of Parker wanting revenge after leaving his crew left him for dead gave this movie more suspense, making it much easier to follow.  

         Jennifer Lopez was great in her role as Leslie, the real estate agent who was desperate for a big score.  If she wasn’t outwitting another real estate agent so she could get a client away from her, her part in the ending of the movie only made this more dramatic.  

          The robbery at the auction seemed to be clever and unexpected but I Michael Chiklis, who played Melander, didn’t seem to have much character in the show.  I thought he was more memorable as a bad guy when he was in The Shield.  Maybe you could say that the screenwriter was trying to follow the movie but if he could give more of a role to Statham and add parts to the book, I thought he could make Melander out to be a more viscous character. 

           I was pleasantly surprised by this movie and would give it four stars.  If anything, Statham took one of Stark’s books which wasn’t that great and made it into a decent movie.  




Rick Holman