Grade: D+

Verdict: A car-chase-and-gunplay adventure that would be wicked fun if not for an ugly misogynistic streak.

Details: Starring Jason Statham and Shu Qi. Produced by Luc Besson. Directed by Cory Yuen. Rated PG-13 for violence and some sensuality. 94 minutes.

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Review: Meet BMW enthusiast Frank Martin: sociopath with a heart of gold.

He has no problem delivering a bound-and-gagged woman to a group of snarling thugs, but out of sympathy he buys her an orange soda and cuts a hole in the tape over her mouth so she can drink it.

Is she going to be raped or killed by his clients? He doesn't care--as long as she's not too thirsty.

Martin is the anti-hero of "The Transporter," a car-chase-and-gunplay adventure that would be wicked fun if not for an ugly misogynistic streak.

British actor Jason Statham, a former Olympic diver and co-star of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," plays Martin with a kind of Frank Sinatra cool. In the film's opening sequence, he rolls his customized Beemer in front of a bank and four frantic robbers pile in while an alarm shrieks inside the building.

Martin politely refuses to drive: the original deal stipulated three men, not four. He says it would be futile to attempt escape because he calculated the getaway with precise fuel, shock absorbers, etc.

He waits patiently until one of the robbers is killed and dumped -- then races away. As the car rumbles up a concrete staircase, the Transporter says to the lead crook: "See what I mean about the shocks?"

The ensuing chase is gasp-inducing and played with sly humor, but the movie falls apart like a jalopy, with hackneyed villains played by Matt Schulze and Ric Young and a series of wild inconsistencies.

After dropping off the squirming young lady (Hong Kong action actress Shu Qi), Martin agrees to chauffeur a suitcase to another location.

The suitcase is a bomb--placed for no apparent reason--that blows his beloved car to smithereens.

When he goes back for revenge, he frees Shu's character, who follows him around like a lost kitten. After he cuts off her ropes, she smiles, makes him breakfast, helps him hide his crimes from the police and sleeps with him.

Shu, who performs with a lot of charm despite her weak character, says she needs his help freeing a group of Asians trapped in a shipping container. Why they're in there, we never learn--but it sets up a few more car chases and fight scenes for our revenge-seeking Transporter.

Director Cory Yuen orchestrates the fights with an eye toward ballet, humor and innovation and the result is usually thrilling. Everything from an oil slick to a parachute can be turned into a weapon.

French filmmaker Luc Besson ("La Femme Nikita" and "The Professional") produced and co-wrote "The Transporter" with Robert Mark Kamen, and they undercut the fun of the action sequences with weird inconsistencies.

Such as: Why would a man who just used his sweater to pulverize 18 men have such trouble disarming an old guy who's waggling a revolver at him?

— Anthony Breznican, The Associated Press