If you’re still going to see Jason Statham movies at this point, you generally know the drill. To say that Statham is an actor who has developed his own niche is something of an understatement. His movies are all about the action and the swagger. You pay to watch Statham bust people’s heads with his fists and cut them down to size with his snark. He’s always the toughest, best-prepared, smartest guy in the room. He’s never the hero. He’s always a bad man of some sort—but one who lives by his own code. The stories in Jason Statham movies are usually pretty simple, the dialogue is fairly ordinary, and the supporting roles are generally filled by serviceable D-listers who you may have seen in one or two things before, but whose names you don’t quite know and don’t really see any reason to learn. But none of that matters much, because you’re watching a Jason Statham movie. You know what you’re getting. Did you see the way he smirked right before he kicked through that guy’s sternum? Awesome!
On paper Parker looks like it could be something different than your regular Jason Statham movie. Sure, he’s still the smartest guy in the room, and he’s still playing an outlaw who lives by a twisted code of honor, but here he’s backed up by other notable actors. He’s got guys with strong TV resumes like The Shield’s Michael Chiklis and The Wire’s Wendell Pierce playing his antagonists, and he’s got an A-lister in Jennifer Lopez playing his primary female foil. Parker isn’t just another generic action script retrofitted to having Statham as its lead either. This is an adaptation of “Flashfire,” one in a lengthy series of very popular Donald E. Westlake novels that feature the Parker character. So you can presume that there’s going to be a good deal more depth, personality, and narrative intrigue to this film than you usually get from your typical Jason Statham flick.
But, the truth is, despite its handful of obvious advantages, Parker does indeed end up being just another Jason Statham flick, and not some sort of next step up the Hollywood hierarchy for the actor. Though it gives him Lopez as his main romantic foil, this is coming a decade after she was at the height of her fame. Lopez had every opportunity in the world to become the biggest actress in the business and was never able to achieve more than just being another utility player. And here, once again, she isn’t bad at all as the struggling real estate agent who gets swept up into Parker’s revenge scheme, but she isn’t any sort of revelation either. She emotes competently, she stays out of the way, and when she gets her one big opportunity to put her trademarked backside on display, it feels like she has dutifully done her job. But it’s also clear why she never got the opportunity to move from starring in big budget cash grabs to moving on to prestige pics. While she has the looks and the base skills to become a star, there’s just nothing extra there to give directors and casting agents an excuse to take a chance on her when it comes to meatier roles. As far as Chiklis and Pierce go, they never get the opportunity to do anything here other than play the role of growling toughs, so the level of acting talent Parker brings to the table doesn’t serve to elevate it much whatsoever.
The story too leaves quite a bit to be desired, if you’re looking to judge this thing as something more than the typical action flick. What we get is a simple revenge storyline where Statham’s character gets screwed on a robbery job by the bad guys, so he tries to cut in and screw them over on their next job. And though that might seem like a situation ripe for moral exploration, no one involved takes the opportunity to use it as such. Parker is clearly the good guy, these guys are clearly the bad guys, and nothing anyone ends up doing is very important to the story at all; everyone’s actions just serve as flimsy excuses for fights to happen. Why four hardened criminals would all pile in a car together to pick up a carryout pizza together is never explained, why an everyday gal in her forties would walk into a compound full of thieves who want to kill her is never explained; the script just comes up with flimsy excuses to get all of the characters together in all of the places it needs them to be, and consequently it can never really be taken seriously.
As was stated earlier though, that’s not necessarily the end of the world. Though the acting here isn’t anything that’s going to blow your hair back, and the story is just an excuse for Jason Statham to kill some people, Parker is pretty satisfying once all of the killing starts. This is a super violent movie. One scene, where a contract assassin is sent to get rid of Statham’s character, is especially hard-hitting and bloody, and it serves as a disgusting reminder of why the action genre can be so much fun. And though the rest of the script fails to live up to this big moment, it generally serves as a reminder of why people watch action movies in the first place. It’s entertaining on a base, macho, testosterone level. And the cheesiness of the early 90s score that David Buckley made for the film is pretty much next level. The whole time you’re watching Parker, the soundtrack keeps you looking over your shoulder to make sure that Steven Seagal hasn’t randomly showed up in the room you’re in. Statham’s latest isn’t really great, but you probably already know what you’re getting into when you choose to watch it, so nobody is going to walk away from it all that surprised.
