Release Date: November 26, 2008 Studio: Lionsgate MPAA Rating: PG-13 Genre: Action •
Adventure •
Comedy Director: Olivier Megaton Writers: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen Cast: Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova, François Berléand, Robert Knepper, David Atrakchi Synopsis: Frank Martin has been pressured into transporting Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for the Ukraine, from Marseilles through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi, Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger. Despite Valentina’s cynical disposition and his resistance to get involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another.
The Review: Here's the thing; Jason Statham kicks ass. Nuff said. Ok I might say a bit more.
Jason is not likely to ever win an Oscar, nor do I think he wants or needs to. He knows his fanbase and lets be honest here can you see him playing a mentally challenged gay football player trying to over come the odds to impress his drunk dead beat dad while simultaneously being a prodigy painter who writes hit songs for Clint Black? Not so much. No Jason is the guy you call when you need to blow some shit up while popping off some great dialog and making the girls swoon over his rugged bad boy image and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Transporter series is a lot like an album by Green Day; every piece might not be a hit but you know what your getting when you chose it and you’ll enjoy it over all anyway. It’s meant to be a pulse driving good time that makes you forget your day to day woes. So in that respect Transporter 3 works on most levels and if you can suspend reality for a bit just kick back and enjoy the ride.
That being said the previous Transporter entries are superior to this one in everyway. While the other two had plots that although insanely out there on the borders of “What the fuck?!” and “That was bad ass!” this one however is hard to accept and pushes you harder to sink into. Throughout the movie you never understand why they need a Transporter in the first place, they even throw this huge fault in your face at one point when the bad guy (I’m being generous with that label) decides to fire Frank because “Any idiot with a license can do this job” (his words). Basically they over complicated things where it just needs to be kept simple…or as Scotty said it best in Star Trek III: “The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.”
However The Transporter is not about deep well written stories it’s about driving fast and kickin ass; which is where this one also fails to deliver the goods. The first two were much faster paced and had a ton more of that aforementioned action, this time they seemed to skimp on it and it feels more like a Sunday drive at times than a high octane thrill ride. Oh it’s got action and some good fights just less of it.
This is what happens when you hire a guy named Megaton to direct a movie..hell I didn't even know Megatron had a brother! His fights are too blurry and choppy to enjoy and he speeds up the frame during chases which make you feel like you just got dropped into an episode of Benny Hill. One of the things that ruled about these movies were that you could see Jason is actually in there stompin ass and know it’s not a double or a thousand edits on shaky cam to make him look cool. At least he brought us newcomer Natalya Rudakova who really brings some fun to her first big movie role (it helps that I have a thing for crazy red heads with freckles though = ).
I sincerely hope they keep making these films; they serve to cleanse the pallet between so many serious and dark movies and horrible comedies. There’s a lot more miles Frank Martin can ride with us for and with better scripts and better directors I’ll drive it till the wheels fall off.
For all its faults it’s still enjoyable but could and should have been so much better. Rating:
