Review of The Doorman (2020) by Healingtoolbox — 10 Jan 2021

An easy film for critics to unleash their frustrations on. I think here again negative pro reviews reveal how Cancel Culture is infiltrating even film criticism. "Burn it down!" critiques and a boot in the face doe not encourage creators to make better movies.

Let's start afresh. What was the likely pitch of this movie when it was green-lit? Evidence strongly suggests the pitch was re-make Luc Besson's Transporter with a a female lead. The title, look and feel of The Doorman is Transporter 1 start to finish, even more than Die Hard. The pitch was to make a Luc Besson film without Luc. The good news? The film is watchable as Transporter-lite, enuf resonance and originality to make it to the end.

The bad news? The writers-director failed to learn the lessons of Atomic Blonde (2017) and the excellent AVA (2020) with Jessica Chastain which is approximately Atomic Blonde 1.5.

What did these films teach creators paying attention? Their big lesson is you can't simply replace Jason Stratham with a female and make a gender-updated Transporter. You need motivations which arise out of the feminine, not from masculine tropes. As written The Doorman is a script for a MALE LEAD. If you like Luc Besson action films, you will find The Doorman watchable.