A Jason Statham movie is the #1 most popular film on Netflix today, even if it’s not one of the British action legend’s best efforts. 2013’s Parker, a crime/heist thriller, is topping the platform’s chart in the United States this Friday, according to the latest stats from FlixPatrol, taking the crown away from The Dark Knight at #2 and Bigfoot Family at #3.
Based on the Parker novels by Donald Westlake (published under his alias, Richard Stark), the movie stars Statham as the titular professional thief who has a strict moral code. His crew don’t share his ethics, though, and leave him for dead after a job goes wrong. Parker sets out for revenge against his former accomplices, however, by plotting to beat them to the loot at a jewelry heist. Jennifer Lopez co-stars as a real estate agent who unwittingly becomes embroiled in Parker’s world, while Michael Chiklis, Nick Nolte and Bobby Cannavale also feature.
Westlake/Stark penned 24 Parker novels, so this could’ve become another major franchise for Statham, but unfortunately it failed to make much of an impact at the time of its release. The film hardly scratched $50 million at the worldwide box office and reviews weren’t all that kind. Standing at just 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, the site’s critical consensus reads: “Jason Statham is game as usual, but Parker is a thoroughly generic and convoluted heist movie.” That may be, but it seems it’s exactly what Netflix users are looking for right now.
Jason Statham can next be seen in Wrath of Man, directed by his old pal Guy Ritchie and co-starring Josh Hartnett and Scott Eastwood, which is coming out this April. Ritchie and Statham are already back at work on another collaboration, too, with Five Eyes in production now in Turkey and expected to release in 2022.
If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to catch Parker on Netflix when you can.