Parker (Jason Statham) is talked into doing a job with a crew who is robbing the
Ohio State Fair. After the job, Parker is betrayed and left for dead after he decides not to have his share
held over for a bigger job the crew needs all of the money for. Parker tracks the crew while being tailed by a Mob
assassin. He ends up in Palm Beach, Florida and ends up partnering up with a down-on-her-luck real estate broker, Leslie
Rogers (Jennifer Lopez). Parker finds out Melander (Michael Chiklis) and his crew are planning to rob a fortune of
jewels that they will get 20 cents on the dollar. He plans his revenge and to steal their score after they
do the robbery.
PARKER is an adaptation of the Donald E. Westlake novel, Flashfire. It is
an average breezy movie to pass a couple of hours. Jennifer Lopez isn't incredible in this movie (but she
does downplay her image to play the character) while PARKER isn't my favorite Statham movie by a mile. He
is the perfect choice for Parker, but other movies based on The Hunter novel are better adaptations than Parker is even though
this is the first film where the movie is able to use the name of the actual character without changing
it at Westlake's request (when he was alive). I heard the movie is a very faithful adaptation of the novel.
The movie doesn't have enough trademark Jason Statham action while it does an admirable
job on building the plot. The scenery is well filmed and the direction is good. It just that PARKER is bland and yet only mildly entertaining. It
doesn't use anyone's talents to their best advantage and better adaptations like PAYBACK and POINT BLANK stick out much more.
PARKER lacks a stand-out style. I liked the movie even though I recommend they watch it
on DVD or Blu-ray. I do think other Jason Statham movies like THE BANK JOB, THE MECHANIC, or even the first
TRANSPORTER are better movies than PARKER.
this movie review is (c)1-29-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without
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