Parker

Jennifer Lopez joins Jason Statham for this entertainingly silly revenge thriller from director Taylor Hackford. Parker may not be in the same class as Hackford's previous efforts, such as An Officer and a Gentleman and Ray, but his involvement guarantees a certain gloss. Beneath that surface sheen, though, this is standard Statham stuff, with him playing the eponymous crook who's double-crossed and dumped by his gang mates. Despite being beaten, shot, thrown from a moving car, then shot again, Parker's up and after them within hours. He follows the trail to Florida, where he co-opts the help of a cash-strapped estate agent (Lopez), who predictably falls for our hero, despite the fact that he's now wearing a Stetson (don't ask!) and is implausibly posing as a rich Texan. The film has some bone-crunchingly good action sequences, one decent one-liner and it's all daftly watchable, but one suspects that this is more of a career high point for Statham than for Hackford.