Fasten your seatbelts. The Transporter -- right up there with Bullitt and The French Connection -- has some of the most spectacularly sickening driving scenes available on the big screen. We mean that in a good way.

This film, a must-see for action fans, stars Jason Statham. You may have noticed him in Snatch or Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, but here's the thing: This one was written especially for him, which may explain why it works so well. Statham, though he has all the requisite big muscles and whatnot, has a stillness and an innocence about him that put you on his side from the get-go. Even when he's pulverizing bad guys, there's an odd decency about the character. You'll have to trust us on that.

In The Transporter, Statham is Frank, a neat, calm, quiet ex-Special Forces guy with an interesting line of work. Frank delivers packages by car. He doesn't ask or know what is in the packages, but it seems to be understood that the contents are always contraband.

The film opens with a robbery and a jaw-dropping get-away driving sequence. Frank, you see, plays by a strict set of rules. No names, no questions asked, never open the package -- and above all, never change the original deal.

On his next job, however, Frank runs into a problem. The package he is transporting is, well ... wiggling. Frank breaks his own rules by opening the package, and finds that it contains a young woman (Shu Qi). And after that, all his rules get broken.

For the first hour, The Transporter distinguishes itself in the action-adventure genre by putting forth a really good story. Alas, the story starts to go south in the second half, but there are compensations -- lots of hand-to-hand combat with some very bad villains, and beautifully choreographed fight scenes and chase scenes. Creative violence is so rare, no?

The Transporter involves martial arts, unusual weapons, much gun-play, underwater scenes, airplane stuff, an insane truck chase and all manner of chaotic and clever goings-on.

Yes, it's violent and tense-making -- hyperventilation is not outside a viewer's potential responses. But it's also funny and has a wonderful soundtrack from Stanley Clarke. The performances, especially those from Statham and from Francois Berleand as a sympathetic French detective, are highly satisfying.

The Transporter was co-written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, who also co-wrote Kiss Of The Dragon and The Fifth Element. This time, they got it right.

(This film is rated AA)

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