Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Frank Martin's Back

Transporter 3

Photobucket

There seems to be a curse of the third installment. While occasionally there are gems, many great franchises seemed to have been marred by their third chapter, either by losing the good elements of the original, or cramming too much into one movie. This brings us to Transporter 3, in which Jason Statham reprises his role as ultra-cool tough driver Frank Martin.

The Transporter series have always been about all-out action, with little real plot and lots of popcorn value. This time around, our hero has to take on the job of transporting a young woman named Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) from France to Ukraine, a job from his new ‘employer’, just known as Johnson (Robert Knepper). The catch? Both he and the girl have a high-tech device attached to their wrists which will blow them into oblivion if they stray 75 feet from the vehicle. And what a vehicle it is. Martin continues to drive a sleek black Audi S8 W12, which is a star in its own right, stealing every scene it is in.

The plot may be rather thin, but what really matters here are the action scenes, and this is where Statham shines. Stripping topless at least three times throughout the entire movie (and showing off his excellent build) to use his clothes as weapons, he just oozes coolness. Taking out baddie after baddie with relative ease using slick martial arts moves, it was a joy watching the fight sequences, which by the way were performed by Statham himself. The chase scenes also do not disappoint, with a slick battle of manoeuver between the S8 and an E-Class Benz. Wait till you catch the part in which Martin uses a BMX to chase his S8, which was arguably the most intense scene.

The main drawback to the movie is perhaps the romance that develops between Martin and Valentina, which was quite awkward to say the least. This slowed the movie’s pace tremendously. Valentina was annoying for most parts and Statham just isn’t cut for romance. The plot was also somewhat weak, despite using current issues like politics, toxic dumping and environmental damage. But forget all that and throw logic out the window. If fun action is what you’re looking for, Statham delivers and the stunts are as outrageous as they get for the Transporter series.

4 out of 5 Stars

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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aris tee said...

Huh really? Who's Desmond? :-S

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