Jason Statham takes on rivals in a fight scene from The Transporter 2.

Jason Statham has gotten himself into quite a mess this time and it's not just his character in The Transporter 2. The English actor reprises his role as ex-Special Forces officer Frank Martin from 2002's The Transporter in a sequel that is, at best, B-movie action.

The 'B' is not for 'believable' either. In films like these where bullets easily poke holes in the plot, it is the action that is supposed to save the day. Transporter 2 does not want for action, but it defies all laws of gravity and reason without the supportive background, as in The Matrix trilogy, that would justify such a suspension of disbelief.

Say what you will about Steven Seagal movies, but the action was more fulfilling, although in Transporter 2 you get the same stereotypical Jamaican Rastamen, complete with bad accents.

Ironically, the original Transporter was directed by China's Corey Yuen, a martial arts expert, choreographer and actor, but the action sequences were not as over the top as in the sequel.

In the sequel, Yuen remained on set as martial arts choreographer, but Louis Leterrier (who was the artistic director on the first film) took over the director's chair. The French director went even further, relying less on the martial arts and boxing skills of Statham and even more on quite unbelievable stunts. Some of the fight scenes also flash by so quickly that their impact is softened considerably.

Statham still stands out as the rugged and almost-debonair Frank. His wit is put to much less use than in the first Transporter, but Frank remains the type of character that you can connect with on the screen. Fortunately, Statham also has acting credits from Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch as well as The Italian Job to fall back on.

Italian actor Alessandro Gassman features as the villain Gianni, who is as greasy and slick as his hair gel. Former model and acting newcomer Katie Nauta features as the freakishly thin and barely clothed Lola who seems to be going for that femme fatale mystique but most times comes across as cheap and cheesy (like most of the film) as the shoes she wears.

Such an outcome is surprising, however, considering that screenplay writer Luc Besson also created La Femme Nikita. Still, it should be interesting to see what character Nauta will play in X-Men 3, when it is released in 2006.

Unlike the first film, nothing gets transported per se in Transporter 2, although Frank Martin this time gets his driving done in a state of the art Audi. Both Besson (The Professional) and Robert Mark Kamen (The Karate Kid) penned the first script, but somehow something took a turn for the worse the second time around. Not that the original Transporter was great, but it struck a better balance between in-your-face-action and wit.

Clearly, Transporter 2 is not a film that is expected or meant to be taken too seriously, but 'superman stunts' and bad plot aside, the action could have been much better. Best way to approach the second instalment? Try not to think about it - even the action.

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