Film Reviews

Transporter 3

• Rating:
• Director: Olivier Megaton
• Starring: Jason Statham
• Details: France / 100mins (15)

The third in Luc Besson's popular Transporter series takes on the road movie to differ itself from the previous two, but a lack of impressive action scenes render this second sequel dated. Jason Statham returns as Frank Martin, the tough-talking, sharp-dressing driver, forced by villain Johnson (Knepper) into transporting a 'package' across Eastern Europe, and along for the ride is the feisty redheaded Ukrainian Valentina (Rudakova). Transporter 3 is almost a parody of action movies: the bad guy is an educated, super serious, husky-voiced computer whiz (an '80s action villain, then), the tough-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside hero, the shallow plot, the feisty girl with a heart of gold – they're all here. Statham, for me, is a guilty pleasure. His tongue-in-cheek, mildly interested, let's-get-this-scene-down-so-I-can-watch-the-footy-on-the-telly delivery hasn't got old yet. He's believable as an action hero and can do a nifty fight scene; whereas Jackie Chan would use everything in the room as a weapon, Statham here uses everything he's wearing to thwack the bad guys. It's fun, but it's the only trick that director Megaton (if that is his real name) has up his sleeve and his fight scenes are far too similar. His action sequences, an element that made the previous instalments fun and watchable, lack energy and in an action world dominated by Bourne and Bond the Transporter franchise lags behind.

Review by Gavin Burke