"I don't steal
from people who can't afford it and I don't hurt people that don't deserve
it."
The late-Donald E. Westlake is best known for a series of
crime novels starring a highly skilled crook named Parker, each penned under
the pseudonym of Richard Stark. The first of those books,
The Hunter, was famously adapted as Point Blank starring Lee Marvin, a fine
example of the classic revenge film. That same book was translated with less
success as Payback with Mel Gibson.
Neither of those movies featured Parker per se because Westlake wouldn’t allow
producers to call him by that name unless they intended to make the whole
series. Thus, Marvin became Walker while Gibson was called Porter. Another
excellent adaptation was The Outfit
starring Robert Duvall and directed by John Flynn, who also helmed Rolling Thunder, one of the best revenge
films of the 70's. Following Westlake's death, his wife, Abby, and close
friend, producer Les Alexander, hoped to turn the Parker series into the
franchise Westlake had envisioned.
Simply titled Parker,
this new film is based on Flashfire,
one of Westlake's later novels, which was published in 2000. This time Parker
(Jason Statham) hooks up with a quartet of crooks for a heist at the Ohio State
Fair. Parker's new cohorts are headed up by Melander (Michael Chiklis) and
include Carlson (Wendell Pierce), Ross (Clifton Collins Jr.), and Hardwicke
(Micah A. Hauptman), a royal screw-up who only has a spot because his uncle is
a big time mobster in Chicago. The gang makes off with a million dollars and
double-cross Parker in order to use the score to fund their next caper. The
rest of the story will sound familiar to Parker fans as their hero is shot and
left for dead only to survive, and then go on the hunt for revenge.
Parker tracks his former colleagues to Palm Beach, Florida
where they plan to steal $75 million in jewelry from an auction house. He
receives unlikely aid from Leslie Rogers (Jennifer Lopez), a down-on-her-luck
real estate agent who is divorced, deep in debt, and lives with her overbearing
mother (Patti LuPone). Nick Nolte looks like he's about to keel over at any
time in his small role as Parker's mentor.
Statham is an old hand when it comes to playing these
anti-heroes who adhere to their own moral codes as exemplified in The Transporter and The Mechanic. In fact, swap a few details here and there and Parker could have been any number of
previous Statham vehicles. Nothing about the screenplay from John McLaughlin (Hitchcock) feels particularly unique
though Statham is charismatic enough to keep you entertained even when he's
putting on the worst Southern accent ever. Yes, Parker goes undercover as an
oil tycoon from San Antonio with a drawl that would fool no one. Even Statham
seems to believe the accent is bad enough that he quits doing it midstream.
Jennifer Lopez's character is a far cry from the tough and
resourceful Karen Sisco in Out of Sight.
She's shoehorned into the plot almost as awkwardly as some of the flashback
sequences. Leslie's only reason for existing is to act as damsel in distress
and allow horndogs to ogle Lopez when she strips down to her bra and panties.
She's not a love interest for Parker since he already has one in Claire (Emma
Booth), the dutiful girlfriend who worries while still patching up his gunshot
wounds. Meanwhile, Leslie's mother walks around the house with her foo foo dog
demanding the TV be constantly turned to her soap operas. She's so broadly
sketched that you half-expect Broadway legend Patti LuPone to appear in a
muumuu with curlers in her hair.
Parker is the
first genre effort from Taylor Hackford, known more for prestige dramas such as
An Officer and a Gentleman and Ray. Hackford's action sequences aren't
terrible, but there's no panache to the point that any work-for-hire director
like Simon West or Renny Harlin could have been behind the camera.
In the end, Parker is indistinguishable from the rest of the middling early year releases. It's a shame that Westlake's pulpy crime fiction has been
diluted into yet another run-of-the-mill Jason Statham actioner. If you want to
see Westlake's works translated well, check out the graphic novels by Darwyn
Cooke.
Rating: ** (*****)
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