Parker - our review

Jason Statham embodies the anti-hero of Donald Westlake in a thriller too generic

Not everyone saw at the cinema Parker , the new action starring Jason Statham , they will realize that it is a small historic event. It is the first time that the famous criminal gentleman created by Donald E. Westlake (under the pseudonym Richard Stark) appears to the movies with his real name. Westlake, who died in 2008, has always said that he would be granted only if Hollywood had adapted all of his novels, as well, in the various films that he was the protagonist, including Without a moment’s truce with Lee Marvin and Payback with Mel Gibson , had always been called in different ways (Walker and Porter in the two examples mentioned above). After the death of Westlake, the widow has finally granted the use of the real name of the cinema. Thus was born Parker.

The idea this time would be right to launch a franchise sull’antieroe Westlake, here played by a Statham has strangely decided (or whoever) not to give up his British accent despite the literary character is American – though this is lose obviously dubbed., we can say that this choice is emblematic of the entire production: having finally available to a character so long courted, director Taylor Hackford and screenwriter John McLaughlin has mysteriously chosen an actor who has always draws himself to the cinema. Not that this is a criticism of Statham, perhaps one of the last credible action hero today: certainly, however, is not an interpreter able to immerse themselves in a character, but rather the kind of actor on which the characters are written and despite the array of literature, Parker makes no difference.

The writing and staging are direct-to-video production, general and special without flash. Mind you, Parker gets to watch, entertaining enough, but looking at him you get the feeling that would not be bad on a rainy afternoon on Italy 1. Hackford runs all no-frills as the honest journeyman of the old guard, of which he is one of the last examples. Yet it is difficult to forgive certain visual choices, like a soft-focus flashbacks that only the directors of Italian fiction now use.

Statham does what he does and hovers like a surgeon crime in the middle of a cast working routine – including a Michael Chiklis now specialized in roles from the bastard, Nick Nolte plump and ruddy retired thief and Jennifer Lopez who try to recycle noir heroine out of time. Lopez strips off at some point and perhaps would evoke Out of Sight Soderbergh, but only get the effect of making us remember a better film. So that’s Parker: The bignami of a kind, and as each summary is only faint shadow of the original text.

Outbound May 8, Parker is distributed in Italy by Indie Pictures.

Parker - our review