3.5 stars. Rating: R, for violence, profanity, sexual candor and nudity
By Derrick Bang
The best film Jennifer Lopez has
made thus far remains 1998’s Out of Sight,
director Steven Soderbergh’s slick adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel that
introduced feisty bounty hunter Karen Sisco.
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| Parker (Jason Statham), posing as a wealthy Texas oil tycoon, accepts Realtor Leslie Rodgers' (Jennifer Lopez) offer to show him various properties in Palm Beach. She thinks he's looking for a house to buy; he's actually trying to figure out where some former associates might have gone to ground ... because he'd really like to see them. |
(Sisco, obviously too cool a
character to drop, resurfaced — this time played equally well by Carlo Gugino —
in a woefully under-appreciated 2003 ABC television series that ran only seven
episodes, out of the 10 completed, before the plug was pulled. Fans wait in
vain, to this day, for DVD afterlife.)
Crime thrillers appear to be
Lopez’s forté, as opposed to the limp romantic comedies into which she
invariably gets cast. I say that on the basis of her similarly slick and
engaging work in Parker, based on an
equally gritty novel by yet another veteran American thriller writer: the
recently late and much lamented Donald E. Westlake.
A bit of history: Westlake
employed the pseudonym Richard Stark when writing his Parker novels, from
1962’s The Hunter through 2008’s Dirty Money. The debut novel has been
brought to the big screen twice: in 1967, as Point Blank, with Lee Marvin as “Walker”; and in 1999, as Payback, with Mel Gibson as “Porter.”
Other Parker novels have been adapted for stars such as Robert Duvall, Jim
Brown and Peter Coyote, all of whom played the character under a different name
(Westlake having insisted on that, to retain control of his creation).
Although the revenge motif
employed in this new film strongly echoes The
Hunter, it’s actually based on a much later novel, 2000’s Flashfire. Scripter John J. McLaughlin
deserves credit for a slick, polished and deliciously snarky adaptation, while
Hackford gets to resurrect thriller chops he hasn’t exercised since 1984’s Against All Odds.
Let it be said, however, that
Jason Statham owns this film, as is
the case with pretty much everything the rugged action star embraces. His
British origins notwithstanding, he’s the ideal personification of Parker:
appropriate age, ideal physical presence, proper attitude. Marvin and Gibson
weren’t bad, but Statham delivers just the right blend of resourceful
arrogance, foolhardy stubbornness and wounded pride.
Parker’s all about commitment: If
you promise to do something, you’d damn well better do it ... or risk the consequences. He’s also a career thief and
cold-hearted killer, if a situation demands it: definitely a template for later
series characters such as Lawrence Block’s Keller and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.
And, like those other modern-day warriors, Parker isn’t a psychopath; he’s
capable of kindness — after a fashion — and bears no ill will toward the
innocent.
Statham nails that duality, as
well.
