MOVIE REVIEW - Parker

Jason Statham has a new movie seemingly every mid-winter, and this year Jennifer Lopez tags along for the new action flick, Parker.

Parker is certainly an action movie, but to its and Statham's credit, this is more than many of his movies.  Parker has a bunch of action sequences, but it also takes the time to develop a character or two, including Parker who is a very enigmatic action figure.

Parker (Statham) is a very bad guy on the outside, making his living masterminding elaborate robbery schemes, the take of which is in the many hundreds of thousands of dollars.   He also has a heart. Underneath his sometimes brutal exterior, he is a real softy most of the time, and always seems to make good on those who help him along the way.  Even it's for diabolical reasons.

Parker and his band of not so nice men stage a large rip-off of the Ohio State Fair's box office. On their getaway there is a huge disagreement between the gang, and they throw Parker out of a moving car.  They then belly back and shoot him.  Thinking he was dead they run off with his share of the take.   Although Parker does not die, and he recovers to get back his money, and to make things right.  He sets his sights on the gang's next big job they have planned in Florida.   He's going to kill these guys and get on with his life. 

He befriends a local realtor Leslie (Lopez), and needs her expertise of the area.  She is desperately in debt, and needs something good to happen to her.  So Parker cuts her in on the possible deal. If he lives through this, he will make her a rich woman.  That is his promise.

Statham is certainly a likable actor, and he fills up the screen nicely in these kinds of movies.  Here Statham shows a whole lot more versatility and does a whole lot more here than just shoot people. I have called him out a few times asking him to quit making the same movie over and over again.  Last years, Safe was a step in the right direction, and the journey continues here in the right direction. This is written far better than many projects past for Statham, all the while not forgetting what his bread and butter is.  Action.  Lopez is fun here in this small role, and it's good to see her back on screen.

This story is a bit unclear a times, but it seems to catch up with itself.  There are also a few holes here and there, but it's not a deal breaker.  Over all this is pretty fair for a late January release, and is certainly better than most anything else that has been dished out in the past two weekends.  Sometimes you have to judge a movie on what it is. This is a actiony winter movie. And it that's what it delivers

Parker.  It's not Citizen Kane, or Titanic.   But it's a whole lot better than Movie 43, or Hansal And Gretel.  Forgettable in a year? Yes, but OK today.