Tue 30 Mar 2021
PARKER. 2003. Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Patti LuPone, Emma Booth, Nick Nolte. Based on the book Flashfire, written by Donald Westlake under the pen name Richard Stark. Director: Taylor Hackford. Currently streaming on Netflix.
I imagine most of you reading this review already know who Parker is, and if so, you probably knew about this movie long before I did, and if so you probably watched it long before I did. But just as a basis to begin with, Parker is the toughest (anti)hero you ever don’t want to meet, and if you do, you don’t want to mess around with him. He appeared in a series of 24 books by Donald E. Westlake, and while a couple of movies were made from the books, this is the first one in which he’s called Parker.
I wouldn’t want to say that it’s the best of the three, because Point Blank, the one with Lee Marvin, has become what some critics call a cult classic. But while I can see why they might want to say that, I have to tell you that I think this is the one that captures the essence of what makes Parker Parker the best.
Which is this. Basically who he is a thief, and he’s good at what he does. What you do not want to do is cross him, though, in any shape or form:
In the opening of this one, Parker is disguised as a priest while the rest of his crew are made up as clowns. The robbery of the Ohio State Fair box office goes off like clockwork, but when the rest of gang tells Parker that they need his cut to finance their next theft, he does not take it kindly, to say the least. He objects, they leave him for dead, but naturally he is not, which is a mistake by the gang they soon wish they hadn’t made.
The trail leads to Palm Beach, which is where Jennifer Lopez comes in. She’s a real estate agent, divorced, pushing 40 and with no idea where life is leading her. He needs her to show him around, but it doesn’t take her long to know what is up, and she wants in. In the meantime, there is enough action to keep anyone who loves this kind of movie as well satisfied as any movie with this kind of firepower in it could ever do.
The ending is a little lame, with loose ends flying everywhere, but that’s only in comparison to the rest of the film, and if you were to have asked me afterward if they really needed Jennifer Lopez in it, I would have to agree and say maybe not. I suppose that this was meant to be the first of a franchise, but for what ever reason, it didn’t happen, and Jason Statham went on to other, if not better, things. To me, though, he made a perfect Parker, and I would have liked to have seen more.
March 31st, 2021 at 8:11 am
We kind of got two Parker films around this time, as Mel Gibson’s Get the Gringo a.k.a. How I Spent My Summer Vacation was a quasi-sequel to Payback.
Westlake’s opening lines to his novels were almost always absurdly gripping – my favourite being, “When the telephone rang, Parker was in the garage killing a man.”
March 31st, 2021 at 2:13 pm
I have not seen PAYBACK. I understand there is a director’s cut on DVD that is quite a bit different than the one seen in theaters. If anyone can recommend one over the other, please do.
Nor have I seen GET THE GRINGO, and from what I have read about it just now, it appears that maybe I should.
March 31st, 2021 at 3:20 pm
Watch the theatrical cut of PAYBACK first. the director’s cut while good, isn’t quite as tight. GRINGO is also well worth a watch. I watched PARKER just last week. I liked it, but I thought Statham was a little too preachy about why he wanted his money. Chaos and all.
March 31st, 2021 at 4:08 pm
That’s probably the best way to do it, Bob. Watch both, but the theatrical version first. Thanks for the advice!
March 31st, 2021 at 3:43 pm
MADE IN U.S.A., the French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, is a triumph of visual style. Have no idea if it is close or not to the Parker novel. People watch it for the photography, and pay no attention to the often hard-to-follow plot.
March 31st, 2021 at 4:10 pm
This is the first I’d known that MADE IN U.S.A. had any connection to one of Stark’s novels. Very interesting.
Here’s an essay on the film from the folks at Criterion, who released the movie on DVD:
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1199-made-in-u-s-a-the-long-goodbye
March 31st, 2021 at 7:42 pm
Parker has a pretty good line up of actors playing the role (if not by name), Stratham, Lee Marvin, Mel Gibson, Peter Coyote, Robert Duvall, and Jim Brown are just the ones I can think of off hand.
Whenever I think of Parker and Westlake writing as Richard Stark my mind goes to the famous interview between Westlake, Stark, and Tucker Coe where Stark murders the others at the end of the interview. It kind of sums up the Parker series for me.
To be honest though I’m not sure anyone quite captured Parker or the Stark voice. Film makers always seem to chicken out a bit not quite comfortable with Parker being Parker. There is a tendency to make Parker more sympathetic or provide some sort of philosophical or moral high ground that just doesn’t belong with the ultimate anti-hero.
Parker in the books is his own philosophy, his own morality. He won’t be cheated, crossed, betrayed, or endangered by anyone. Play straight by him and he will play straight in return, cheat him and … That’s the only morality of the books, Parker won’t play the sucker or be cheated, and he will do whatever it takes to illustrate to everyone involved the price of that.
Ironically Steve McQueen in THE GETAWAY feels somewhat more like Parker than the figure in any of the Stark movies to me with Clint Eastwood in THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT also close.
March 31st, 2021 at 8:26 pm
Aside from turning the lead character from a man (Parker) to a woman (played by Anna Karina), MADE IN U.S.A. followed the plot of THE JUGGER rather faithfully. Westlake famously said that of the movie Parkers, a friend of his once remarked, “He’s been played by a white man [Lee Marvin], a black man [Jim Brown], and a woman [Anna Karina]. I’d say the character lacks definition.” Westlake told me in a letter many years ago that the first of the Alan Grofield novels, THE DAMSEL, had made it to the script stage, with Charles Bronson in mind as Grofield. I guess that was as far as it got.
March 31st, 2021 at 8:35 pm
. . . And Statham also played another estimable noir character, Inspector Tom Brant, in a 2011 movie version of Ken Bruen’s BLITZ. The movie was ok but pretty conventionalized, and not a patch on Bruen’s novel. The right casting for Brant would have been Brendan Gleeson or Bob Hoskins.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:36 pm
Steve,
After telling me about this movie last week in conversation, I watched it the other night. I have read the book this was based on too long ago to remember anything about the plot. BEST thing I can say about this movie was seeing J-LO in her Bra and Undies. If this were just another action movie, I would have been OK with it but my BIGGEST complaint is that Parker was played by a Brit! I’ve read many a complaint some time ago when they cast Tom Cruise to play “Jack Reacher”. OK, I’ve never read those books, so I was OK with Tom Cruise playing another action hero, but I’m NOT OK with Stratham playing this part. Also, they made his real love interest in the books (Claire) into a girl closer to her teens than an adult woman. The Claire of the books would NEVER travel around just to sew up her man after he was beat up as much as they had Stratham get beat, shot and stabbed. And speaking of him getting stabbed, the scene where the hunting knife went through his hand was just WAY over the top. Also, I don’t think the real Parker would have let J-LO cut herself in on the cut the way the movie did. I did like at the ending where Parker sent money to the family of Tomato Farmers who saved his life, but there again, I’m not sure you’d ever see that in the books. And Nick Nolte looked as if they dug him up out of a grave to play in this thing. I would love to see more Parker movies based on the Westlake books but NOT with Stratham in the lead. Now, if I can ever get you to watch “Bad Times At the El Royale” and give a review, I think THAT’s a movie REALLY worth talking about.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:46 pm
All I can say, Paul, is that I hope you didn’t pay money to watch it!
Unfortunately for me to watch BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE, I have to come up with $3.99 to rent it.
And when I do, I hope I like it way better than you liked PARKER. Looks like the only thing we agree on is seeing J-Lo in her bikini underwear.