Jason Statham gets in the driver’s seat once again as Frank Martin, the transporter. The movie starts out with a high-speed car chase after some suspicious activity from the driver (who is NOT Frank Martin). The driver does end up getting away from police. We cut to Martin with the French inspector from the previous films and they’re fishing. The inspector gets a call about the car chase. Fortunately Martin has a perfect alibi this time. So in the next scene, the mysterious driver ends up smashing through Frank Martin’s house while he is enjoying a peaceful evening. We find out Frank knows the guy. The driver was hired for a job that he turned down. So now Mr. Martin is forced back into a job against his will. He must drive “the package” to a destination at the request of a man claiming to only be working for important people. I’ll say this; I was a fan of the original Transporter movie. It’s got great car chase scenes, cool fight scenes, and really brought Jason Statham to the forefront as an action star. The 2nd one just didn’t hold up as well. And now the third one is back to the basics but pretty much just more of the same.
There is one “catch” in the film. Statham must do this job with a mysterious Ukranian woman named Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) in the car with him. Both of them are strapped with metal bracelets that have a charge attached. If they go a certain distance away from the car, the bracelet will detonate. Through half the movie, Valentina is very uncooperative with Frank. She doesn’t explain why she is there or who she is. Martin eventually finds out she is the package. She is the kidnapped daughter of a Ukranian government official who is being blackmailed into signing documents that allow hazardous materials into his country.
The movie once again has cool car chases. You can always count on this in Transporter movies because Frank Martin is ALWAYS driving. Since this one involves Statham always being with the car, we get a LOT of driving. There is one absolutely ridiculous scene where Frank Martin is chasing his car down after it is stolen from him. He cant let it get too far away or he’ll explode so he grabs a bicycle. He does insane jumps and grinds on rails very reminiscent of the cheesiest scenes from Vin Diesel’s XXX while keeping up with his car. I couldn’t help but laugh when it was supposed to be serious action sequences. The woman in the movie is a tad annoying. She speaks in broken English that got on my nerves and to be honest she wouldn’t be as uncooperative as she was if this was a real life situation because she would want to find a way to get out alive. She’s also there to provide some sexual tension between her and Statham’s character.
So the entire movie is Frank Martin and this Ukranian chick driving while avoiding her father’s men sent to claim her, trying to think of a way to get out of the bomb bracelets, and dealing with each other as they argue. Its got some fun moments and cool chases but like I said, its just more of the same and there was really no need for a third film in this series. Actrually there was no need for a 2nd film even. The film would have been fine as a One and Done.
IMDB – 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 36%
Movie Wiseguys – 5.5/10
