Plot Ice-cool driver Frank Martin (Statham) is forced into action when a terrorist (Knepper) straps a bomb to his wrist and insists he transport the kidnapped daughter (Rudakova) of a politician to a rendezvous. Should be easy — until Frank falls for the girl.
Review There hasn't been much so far, in his short acting career, that has thwarted Jason Statham. But, with Transporter 3, we may have found his Achilles heel: the law of diminishing returns.
Nobody will ever pretend that the first two Transporter films were works of art. But they were perfectly pitched slices of preposterous fun that went a long way to establishing Statham as a new action hero, as at ease with gruff one-liners as he was with Jackie Chan-esque high-kicking.
Transporter 3, though, is a dour, drab affair that takes itself far too seriously. With previous director Louis Leterrier moving onto greener pastures, writer-producers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen have decided to humanise Frank Martin. So the first time we see him he’s fishing with his buddy, French cop Tarconi (François Berléand), and then becomes something of a wet blanket as he falls for Natalya Rudakova’s Valentina, who seemingly exists purely to disprove the rumour, started by Leterrier, that Martin was, to use Valentina’s own phrase, “the gay”. And, though Martin tersely insists, “I am not the gay,” given the enthusiasm with which he kisses her in a bizarre roadside seduction scene that borders on male rape, she might have a point.
Mind you, Martin may be kissing her just to shut her up, for rarely has a major character been so misjudged. Valentina inexplicably shifts character throughout, from haughty mute to mad-for-it party girl to eyelid-fluttering damsel-in-distress, with only one unifying factor: she remains unlikable throughout. And inbetween, she somehow melts Frank’s defences with a strange series of monologues about chicken kiev and dessert. In fact, she bangs on about food so much that we thought about giving this two Michelin stars instead.
It’s up to the action to save the movie. Sadly, though, the only thing explosive about new director Olivier Megaton is his name. The fight scenes are rote re-runs of the first two films, with nothing to match the slicked-up oil scene of the first, or the firehose bit in the second.
As for car chases, the big gimmick — that Martin is wired to a bomb that will explode if he strays more than 75 feet from his vehicle — is frustratingly under-used, with the only big set-piece, in which Martin takes after the car on a kid’s bike, clunky and uninvolving when it should have been spry and kinetic. The film in microcosm, then.
Verdict Incoherent and inconsistent, this is a step back for Statham in his quest to become more than a cult figure.
ot as good as the other two movies but still had it's good action sequences and a kinda good plot, but to me and my brother it seemed more of a road movie than the previous ones. ... Read More
I preferred the first two Transporter films but overall I enjoyed this, the main villain is maybe a bit of a non-entity and theres some standard terrible Euro over acting on display in some of the bit parts, but its certainly not as bad as some of the previous comments have made it out to be. ... Read More
The third part in the Transporter series goes down the same road as the first 2 parts and so it`s more of the same. Yes, it`s again more of the same. Not that that`s a bad thing though, it`s again way over the top and highly entertaining. Jason Statham does exactly what he`s good at, although it looks like he does more on automatic pilot this time. Robbert Knepper (T-Bag from Prison Break) and Jeroen Krabbé are great in the supporting roles and all that added up make this into a great no-br... Read More
Jason Statham is a man who has made a name for himself for acting in the most thrilling, fast-paced and mad action movies. Even creating a cult icon of himself. But in Transporter 3, he seemed to lose his talent, and instead, presented us with a joke. Maybe I am over exaggerating, but when watching an action ‘threequel’ I would expect the film-makers to learn from what they have done and build on it. Of course Statham uses his great combat skills and witty antics but this isn’... Read More
L: Kazuya
What a strange film. It's polished and flashy, but hollow and virtually suspense-free. Statham's extremely impressive physical skills are drowned in amateurish editing and camera-work. Some of the action scenes are impressive though, highlights include Statham on a bmx in wild pursuit of his car, and the two-wheeler showoff between the two trucks.
The film's major liability is the unfathomably annoying bitch Statham has to protect. Jesus Christ, what was Besson sniffing whe... Read More
What a strange film. It's polished and flashy, but hollow and virtually suspense-free. Statham's extremely impressive physical skills are drowned in amateurish editing and camera-work. Some of the action scenes are impressive though, highlights include Statham on a bmx in wild pursuit of his car, and the two-wheeler showoff between the two trucks.
The film's major liability is the unfathomably annoying bitch Statham has to protect. Jesus Christ, what was Besson sniffing when he wrote her? The... Read More
This one probably had the best storyline of the three, I liked the premise about not going further than 75 feet from the car or he'll explode. Unfortunately, this device was hardly used, instead we had a couple of good action scenes but they were too far apart and often cut so often (a la Bourne Supremacy) that you couldn't enjoy the clever fighting. After that we have the supremely annoying love story with the most intensely annoying character ever created, I was wishing for the Stath to let he... Read More
To be fair i think it was the weakest of the 3, the fights scenes were good when they got going but there were only 2 of em really?? The plot was quite fun with the attached to the car angle played well especially the bike chase which i thought was excellent. Knepper was a great bad guy as well. But....
The indistructable car was funny, bullets didnt seem to hit anything, were they firing blanks???
I still cant understand why statham never left that bint when she was farting... Read More
L: Invader_Ace
OK, lets be honest it's nowhere near as good as Transporter 2, but it was alright. I agree with the comments about the editing of the fights, that was a mistake. It definatly needed to be more "bonkers", that's what makes 2 so awesome. Now is definately the time for TVT: Taxi Vs Transporter!
nrelated note; I think it's pretty rich, to say the least, that people are slagging off the actress as being ugly. Misogyny anyone?ote]
Well....she was.&n... Read More
Classic
Excellent
Good
Fair
Tragic
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