The Transporter
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 11, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The best movie Steven Seagal never made. Except that Statham, while just as marked for death, is harder to kill. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
A blending of international film sensibilities -- France meets Hollywood meets Hong Kong -- with a very cool anti-hero protagonist.
80
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
Immensely exciting and funny. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
A poke in the adrenal gland -- obeys the first law of action movie-making by quickening the heart and dazzling the eye. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A thoroughly satisfying mix of mayhem and mindless fun. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Kinetic, meaningless and fun. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
There's plenty to like here, especially for connoisseurs of the action genre, and there's also plenty to make you wonder whether Besson and co-writer Robert Mark Kamen scribbled their screenplay on a batch of Marseilles cocktail napkins and then lost one or two. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Ray Conlogue
This is a film where there isn't the slightest doubt about the dramatic outcome. But the marketing will be a cliffhanger. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Cut above this genre's usual industrial sludge, even when the chops and kicks are too fast to follow. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Too much action brings the movie to a dead standstill. Why don't directors understand that? Why don't they know that wall-to-wall action makes a movie less interesting -- less like drama, more like a repetitive video game? Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This balls-to-the-walls action/adventure makes the average James Bond film look like something by Eric Rohmer. It’s high rent Steven Segal - fights, explosions, and more fights, but with a flair. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
The plot doesn't rate as high as the quality of the bodies in fast, furious motion. What counts in The Transporter isn't the wafer-thin story about smugglers -- it's the way Martin kicks open a door, fends off a couple of axes and uses a perfectly ordinary sport shirt as a weapon. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderHank Sartin
Entertaining but forgettable action flick. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
What's most disappointing is the almost utter lack of humor -- In the mindless action sweepstakes, however, there's still enough here to place The Transporter above big-bang gibberish like XXX. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Will Statham make it as an action hero? Hard to say. His personality makes Vin Diesel look positively debonair. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
A slick, sexy little package with fast cars, big explosions, dazzling locations in the south of France, a trip-hop score, and about as much plot to fill a thimble. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Sadly, the last 40-odd minutes are essentially one fight, pushed to the point of absurdity. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldKeith Cassidy
Sreams its devotion to style over substance with slick action sequences, fast cars and breathtaking stunts. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Another big, dumb action movie in the vein of "XXX," The Transporter is riddled with plot holes big enough for its titular hero to drive his sleek black BMW through. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Muddles through as a film so uninterested in character, it doesn't bother assigning names to them. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
If anything, The Transporter isn't ludicrous enough; only one scene (a hand-to-hand showdown in the middle of an oil slick) reaches the inspired, delirious comic heights of the best Hong Kong movies. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
So second-hand and disposable is it in every respect. Read full review
40
The New York TimesDave Kehr
American audiences will probably find it familiar and insufficiently cathartic. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyBruce Fretts
It's like the worst movie Jean-Claude Van Damme never made. Read full review
20
TV Guide MagazineSteve Simels
It takes perverse genius to make an action film this stupid. Read full review
20
Village VoiceJustine Elias
Kills time between car chases and martial-arts bouts with random scuba-diving footage apparently culled from producer–co-writer Luc Besson's "The Big Blue." Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
That the movie becomes silly isn't necessarily a problem, but it also becomes tiresome, degenerating into a series of martial arts interludes -- everyone unaccountably leaves his guns at home. Read full review
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