Parker (2013) Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pierce Movie Review

Parker (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Jason Statham in Parker (2013)

The Good Bad Guy

Parker (Jason Statham) is a thief with his own code of conduct as to who he robs, but he finds himself working with a team to rob a fun fair and all goes relatively smoothly. That is until they are due to divide the money as the other guys want to use it all for a bigger job whilst Parker wants his share and wants out. It leads to Parker being left for dead which he would have been if it wasn't for a passing family finding him and taking him to hospital. Recovered, Parker is now out for revenge and he doesn't care if the others are now working for a mob boss as he is going to make them pay for what they did which is how ambitious realtor Leslie (Jennifer Lopez) ends up becoming involved as he takes up a disguise of a house buyer to get near to them.

In the words of Bing Crosby "It went straight down the middle". No I am not on about a golf shot but "Parker" a completely stereotypical Jason Statham movie which sees him as a good bad guy who is caring towards those he is doing over and who sets about getting violent revenge on those who double crossed and tried to kill him. Yes there are some elaborations to the script with the addition of Leslie but "Parker" is the sort of Jason Statham movie where it could have featured any number of the other characters he has played over the years and ended up still the same.

Jennifer Lopez in Parker (2013)

But the thing is that I don't mind "Parker" being a stereotypical Jason Statham movie because he works the niche well and it means you know what you are going to get from him and know it will to a point be entertaining. And that is true of "Parker" as whilst it is short on surprises and doesn't feature any acting or characters that are memorable it still entertains thanks to Statham delivering this smooth gruffness and some violent action.

The only problem with "Parker" is the way the storyline brings in the character of Leslie and it is in some ways an expected aspect of the movie. I suppose in a way the problem is the character is too full on and so it makes it come across that Jennifer Lopez is too full on opposite Statham and it puts the balance of the movie out.

What this all boils down to is that if you enjoy Jason Statham action movies you should like "Parker" as it is pretty stereotypical. But it doesn't take the stereotypical aspects of a Jason Statham movie and make them more than what they are or memorable and so "Parker" ends up another one of those watch once movies and only again when you are channel surfing late at night when you can't sleep.


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