Movie review: ‘Parker’ is chaotic fun

There’s something familiar about the mood, the characters, the plotline, and other elements of “Parker,” a fast-moving, slightly messy film about bad guys doing bad things to a bad guy, then that bad guy turning things around on those that did him wrong.

I didn’t recognize the names of the book or the author the film was based on – “Flashfire” by Richard Stark. But that’s because I didn’t realize Stark is a penname for the late prolific mystery writer Donald Westlake. Nor did I know that Parker – the bad guy who was double-crossed – was in a whole series of Stark books. Here comes that familiarity business. I did know the character as Walker, the central guy played by Lee Marvin in the great movie “Point Blank,” and as Porter, played by Mel Gibson, in the nifty remake, “Payback.” Both films were based on Westlake/Stark’s novel “The Hunter.”

Parker, a criminal with rules and principals (such as “When I say I’ll do something, I always follow through”), has appeared in many films; he’s just never been called Parker. But he’s always been cool and calm and tough, and fairly resilient to beatings and shootings and stabbings. Played by Jason Statham in this outing (where he’s obviously finally called Parker), he’s introduced, in gray hair and priest’s collar, as a member of a gang that’s about to pull off a huge cash heist at the Ohio State Fair.

Things don’t, you know, go as planned, and circumstances lead to his four “partners” leaving him for dead, and in the bargain, setting up a sometimes confoundingly plotted revenge tale. It’s really not much more involved than Parker wanting his share of the stolen loot that was taken by them, and while he’s getting it, hey, a little punishment wouldn’t be out of order.

But for a character who says he does his best to avoid chaos, it’s kind of all around him, sometimes in the structure of the script. An awful lot of names are thrown at us and become hard to keep track of. One or two explanatory flashbacks would’ve worked nicely, but we’re handed about a half-dozen. And for the first half of the film, a lot of viewers are going to be wondering why the character of unhappy real estate agent Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez) is even there. Fortunately, that all gets worked out, and she becomes a somewhat important part of the story.

The change of setting from small-town Ohio to Palm Beach is a welcome one, and it works, plot-wise, as that’s where the four guys Parker is after are headed for a big jewelry heist (yes, there’s lots more expensive jewelry in the ritzy parts of Florida than in rural Ohio).

Statham is effective but doesn’t veer very far from characters he’s played many times over, though he looks great in a big white cowboy hat, and Lopez seems a little embarrassed in an underwear scene in which she’s checked for wearing a wire. But Michael Chiklis is terrifically nasty as bad guy leader Melander, and Patti LuPone provides some fine comic relief as Leslie’s demanding mom.

The film is a fun action piece, but director Taylor Hackford (“Dolores Claiborne,” “An Officer and a Gentleman”) makes the now-common mistake of shooting numerous fistfights and one knife fight in extreme close-up, with the result that it’s hard to tell what’s actually going on.

Ed Symkus covers movies for GateHouse Media.

*****

PARKER

Written by John J. McLaughlin; directed by Taylor Hackford

FilmDistrict  

Rated R

With Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Nick Nolte