Parker is a complex character. As the subject of a couple of dozen novels by Donald E. Westlake, he’s a hardboiled thief with a code of criminal ethics that involves doing the right thing, even if it means killing and maiming people.
“Parker” the movie, is Jason Statham film about a hardboiled robber named Parker who is unafraid to kill and maim to get want he wants. Missing is the complexity of character.
After a daring robbery goes bad Parker (Statham) is double-crossed and left for dead. But because the movie is called “Parker,” he doesn’t succumb to the gunshot wounds. Instead he vows to put things right between him and the gang who cheated him out of his $200,000 split of the loot. If you make a deal both sides have to honor it otherwise there’s chaos, he says, “and I won’t let chaos take over my life.”
Except that things get chaotic when he hatches an elaborate plan to get vengeance and his money.
The most shocking thing about “Parker” is that Jason Statham has hair in the opening scene. His usually close cropped do is hidden under a wig that makes him look a bit like George Clooney’s English brother. Other than that this is as by-the-book as it gets.
Statham is playing a variation on his Statham Character #1 in which he plays “loner with a past who must protect a loved one” (as opposed to Statham Character #2 which is the “loner with a past who must protect a youthful innocent.”) The loved one in this case is money, although there are a number of other characters that could easily have taken the place of the greenbacks.
There’s Parker’s girlfriend (Emma Booth), who looks more like his daughter and Nick Nolte, who rasps his way through an extended cameo as Parker’s business partner. If an Emery board could speak it would sound like the rasp Nolte’s vocal chords produce these days. Neither of these characters is given much to do except parade around naked (her, not him) and fill time until the final caper.
More prominent is Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), a struggling real estate agent who as the pseudo-love interest and almost co-conspirator doesn’t have much to do except deliver lines like, “You don’t have to check me for a wire again do you? You can if you want.”
She’s someone who has bought into the America Dream—Lamborghinis, designer clothes—but can’t afford any of it and she’s bitter. Bitter enough to embrace a life of crime.
Whether she’ll be rewarded and whether Parker’s plot pays off is where the movie treads in murky moral territory. For as often as he says things like, “Civilized people need to follow rules—I need to put things right,” the moral here seems to be that two wrongs do make a right.
Bad + bad = good.
The movie is so intent on selling the idea that the vengeful killer is really a good guy that a character at the end actually wonders if he is some kind of angel.
“Parker” is a Jason Statham movie, with all that implies. The good is a brooding physicality he brings to his roles. He looks like he could snap your neck with his steely glare, so when he does it on screen, it works. Trouble is, the mentality behind the muscles to sell a character who lives by his own morally ambiguous rules is simply missing.
SYNOPSIS: After a daring robbery goes bad thief Parker (Jason Statham) is double-crossed and left for dead. But because the movie is called “Parker,” he doesn’t succumb to the gunshot wounds. Instead he vows to put things right between him and the gang who cheated him out of his $200,000 split of the loot. “If you make a deal both sides have to honor it otherwise there’s chaos, he says, “and I won’t let chaos take over my life.” Except that things get chaotic when he hatches an elaborate plan, involving his real estate agent (Jennifer Lopez), to get vengeance and his money.
Star Ratings:
Richard: 2 Stars
Steve: 2 Stars
Richard: Steve, the most shocking thing about Parker is that Jason Statham has hair in the opening scene. His usually close-cropped do is hidden under a wig that makes him look a bit like George Clooney’s English brother. Other than that this is as by-the-book as it gets. Did you buy into the story at all?
Steve: Not really. But as shocking as Statham is brandishing a wig as Donald E. Westlake’s popular revenge-seeking character, he wasn’t half as unconvincing as Jennifer Lopez when she pops up as the desperate, danger-seeking real estate agent. Was that bad casting or just a bad character?
RC: Her character is baffling. As a pseudo-love interest and almost co-conspirator, she’s as grating as her co-star Nick Nolte’s voice. If an Emery board could speak it would sound like the rasp Nolte’s vocal chords produce these days. For me, though, the moral of the movie is really skewed. The movie is so intent on selling the idea that the vengeful killer is really a good guy that a character at the end actually wonders if he is some kind of angel. Could it be that in this world bad + bad = good?
SG: I suppose Jason Statham is today’s ideal mainstream anti-hero. After all, as mediocre as most of his films are, director Taylor Hackford is at least consistent in delivering what Statham does best – look sinister and kick butt. However, as absurdly indestructible as he is here, the film is too morose to be much fun.
RC: Statham is consistent; I’ll give you that. He has two characters: Statham Character #1 in which he plays loner with a past who must protect a loved one and Statham Character #2 which is the loner with a past who must protect a youthful innocent. Here he’s playing #1. The loved one is money, although there are a number of other characters that could easily have taken the place of the greenbacks.
SG: I agree. Concentrating on a compelling sidekick almost surely would’ve helped solve the questionably ineffectual supporting cast here. One last thing – what kind of a name is Parker anyhow? That lame moniker sounds like Statham should be serving high tea and crumpets to the Crawley family on Downton Abbey, not cracking the skulls of crooked criminals.
In the movie Parker Jason Statham, British actionman and Hollywood star, plays the title character. He’s a ruthless career criminal with a twisted sense of ethics—he doesn’t steal from the poor or hurt innocent people.
Sound familiar? Well it should, as the character is the star of 24 books written by Donald E. Westlake (under the pseudonym Richard Stark). In the books Parker is a man of mystery, who has never had a given name. Westlake never gave a first name to the character, once joking, “I don’t know what the hell it would be, maybe Frank.”
Many films have also been made from the books, with Parker played by everyone from Lee Marvin to Mel Gibson to Robert Duvall.
If the movies don’t ring a bell, however, it’s because on film Parker has often been renamed.
For instance in 1967’s Point Blank (based upon the novel The Hunter) Lee Marvin played the character named Parker in the book but changed to Walker for the film. In Marvin’s version Walker is a tough, hard man, a characteristic the actor may have taken too seriously. Legend has it that in rehearsal Marvin hit co-star John Vernon so hard Vernon burst into tears.
The next year The Split (named The Seventh in print) saw Parker played by Jim Brown but called McClain. This movie is most notable as the first theatrical release to receive an R rating from the brand new MPAA’s film rating system.
In the 70s and 80s the Westlake Parker novels remained popular Hollywood source material. Robert Duvall switched the name to Macklin in 1973s The Outfit, one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite films, while the excellently named Slayground with Peter Coyote in 1983 featured a character called Stone.
The best-known Parker adaptation is Payback in 1999, the second film made from The Hunter. In this revenger story Mel Gibson as Parker (switched to Porter) plays a man shot by his wife and best friend and left for dead.
So many actors have played the character, but who would Westlake, his creator, like to have seen in the role? “Usually I don’t put an actor’s face to the character,” he said, “though with Parker, in the early days, I did think he probably looked something like Jack Palance. That may be partly because you knew Palance wasn’t faking it, and Parker wasn’t faking it either.”
Parker is a complex character. As the subject of a couple of dozen novels by Donald E. Westlake, he’s a hardboiled thief with a code of criminal ethics that involves doing the right thing, even if it means killing and maiming people.
