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Web-Exclusive Review: Transporter 3

Alternative Press - Tim Karan on 11/24/08 @ 1:06 PM - altpress.com

ACTION
Transporter 3 (EUROPACORP/LIONSGATE)
STARS> Jason Statham, François Berléand, Natalya Rudakova, Robert Knepper
DIRECTOR > Olivier Megaton
OPENS > NOV 26
RATING > 3/5


With a trigger-happy disregard for all rules of physics, gravity and character development, Transporter 3 is 100 minutes of high-octane action-and quite possibly a very elaborate Audi commercial-but what did you expect?

Director Olivier Megaton takes the helm in this third installment of the Transporter dynasty (which began with 2002's Transporter) that once again finds ex-special forces agent Frank Martin (Statham) behind the wheel of his armored Audi A8 W12 on a no-names mission. This time, he's been strong-armed into delivering a particularly beautiful package, Valentina (Rudakova), to the Ukraine. While her acting is on par with the rest of the cast, her accent is--how do you say?--about as realistic as most of the movies' stunts.

The crisply edited fight scenes are slick and gratuitous if not entirely bound by edicts of common sense: When Martin finds himself surrounded by a dozen thugs in a German garage, he whips off his shirt and tie which then double as both weapons and a great way to show off his ripped abs.

The underdeveloped plot is at least timely: The "bad-guy" American, Johnson (Knepper), who hired Martin, wants to import eight barges worth of some unspecified pollutant to the Ukraine and is using Valentina as leverage to strike a deal with her Ukrainian politician father, Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbé). The moral dilemma: Will Vasilev opt to save his daughter or the world? Or can Frank Martin save them all?

The final verdict: It is what it is. No one goes to a Transporter movie expecting a transcendental experience. But if you want to see impossible car chases, fantasy fistfights and Jason Statham hold his breath underwater with a lung-capacity that would put any self-respecting sea lion to shame--without having to think too deeply about any of it-you won't be disappointed. --Jennifer Grathwol

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