scooby-the-doo
Uber-Scoober
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
1 Red Dragon Uni. $17,605,000 ---$63,229,000
2 Sweet Home Alabama Dis. $13,800,000 ---$84,300,000
3 Brown Sugar Fox $11,050,000 ---$11,050,000
4 The Transporter Fox $9,150,000
5 My Big Fat Greek Wedding IFC $7,600,000 ---$158,100,000
6 Tuck Everlasting Dis. $6,800,000 ----$6,800,000
7 The Tuxedo DW $6,500,000 ---$36,500,000
8 White Oleander WB $5,500,000 ---$5,500,000
9 Knockaround Guys NL $4,700,000 ---$4,700,000
10 Barbershop MGM $4,000,000 ---$65,400,000
Sweet Home continues to hold well; Witherspoon is moving into the big leagues now with two hits in a row. Tuck's advertising direction was changed at the last moment -- not enough to help its brief box office bow. The Transporter was held back from a September 13th opening by the studio in order to build market awareness (September is the traditional dumping ground for bad product), their best intentions were not helped by the sheer lack of starpower and the busy weekend it eventually opened on. Knockaround Guys is proof that Diesal's 'manufactured' star has little power outside his limited target audience.
--
The Transporter
Prolific producer-writer, and sometimes director, Luc Besson has been exploring the Hong Kong-isation of Hollywood for a few years now. Starting with Taxi (a smash hit in France) and continuing with Kiss of the Dragon, he turns out a project here that succeeds in dancing on the top of the still-born corpses of such big-budget Hollywood action fare as XXX.
Writing specifically for Jason Stratham (Snatch, Lock Stock), Besson's screenplay exists solely in order to get from A to B with maximum momentum along the way. If the plot is not exactly exemplary, or the dialogue sparkling, it allows Mr. Stratham to shine. Please forget the manufactured 'star' of Vin Diesel, Stratham is standout here and looks deserving of the heat that will no doubt be following this performance.
The action sequences and fight chorography come from Hong Kong master Cory Yung, and Stratham not only looks to be doing most of his own work, but he looks quite believable doing it. Standout is the sequence in which Stratham's character must fight a gathering of thugs on an oil-slicked floor. Pure inventiveness, as Statham slips 'n' slides around (although some may argue that it was lifted from Once Upon a Time in China III, Yung succeeds in putting a new twist on the idea).
Pathos and emoting do not come hand in hand within this genre. Stratham does well with what he's given and Matt Schulze does a quite delicious turn as the eponymous 'Wall Street, but there is nothing new here, nothing we haven't seen before in such films as Walter Hill's 'The Driver'.
Standing head and shoulder's above recently action-fare, The Transporter does not let the audience down in the one regard that it sets out to achieve: a good ride.
2 Sweet Home Alabama Dis. $13,800,000 ---$84,300,000
3 Brown Sugar Fox $11,050,000 ---$11,050,000
4 The Transporter Fox $9,150,000
5 My Big Fat Greek Wedding IFC $7,600,000 ---$158,100,000
6 Tuck Everlasting Dis. $6,800,000 ----$6,800,000
7 The Tuxedo DW $6,500,000 ---$36,500,000
8 White Oleander WB $5,500,000 ---$5,500,000
9 Knockaround Guys NL $4,700,000 ---$4,700,000
10 Barbershop MGM $4,000,000 ---$65,400,000
Sweet Home continues to hold well; Witherspoon is moving into the big leagues now with two hits in a row. Tuck's advertising direction was changed at the last moment -- not enough to help its brief box office bow. The Transporter was held back from a September 13th opening by the studio in order to build market awareness (September is the traditional dumping ground for bad product), their best intentions were not helped by the sheer lack of starpower and the busy weekend it eventually opened on. Knockaround Guys is proof that Diesal's 'manufactured' star has little power outside his limited target audience.
--
The Transporter
Prolific producer-writer, and sometimes director, Luc Besson has been exploring the Hong Kong-isation of Hollywood for a few years now. Starting with Taxi (a smash hit in France) and continuing with Kiss of the Dragon, he turns out a project here that succeeds in dancing on the top of the still-born corpses of such big-budget Hollywood action fare as XXX.
Writing specifically for Jason Stratham (Snatch, Lock Stock), Besson's screenplay exists solely in order to get from A to B with maximum momentum along the way. If the plot is not exactly exemplary, or the dialogue sparkling, it allows Mr. Stratham to shine. Please forget the manufactured 'star' of Vin Diesel, Stratham is standout here and looks deserving of the heat that will no doubt be following this performance.
The action sequences and fight chorography come from Hong Kong master Cory Yung, and Stratham not only looks to be doing most of his own work, but he looks quite believable doing it. Standout is the sequence in which Stratham's character must fight a gathering of thugs on an oil-slicked floor. Pure inventiveness, as Statham slips 'n' slides around (although some may argue that it was lifted from Once Upon a Time in China III, Yung succeeds in putting a new twist on the idea).
Pathos and emoting do not come hand in hand within this genre. Stratham does well with what he's given and Matt Schulze does a quite delicious turn as the eponymous 'Wall Street, but there is nothing new here, nothing we haven't seen before in such films as Walter Hill's 'The Driver'.
Standing head and shoulder's above recently action-fare, The Transporter does not let the audience down in the one regard that it sets out to achieve: a good ride.
