Transporter 3

Another action packed movie with Jason Statham as the lead. I do not think he cares about being typecasted since there are so many villians that need to be killed. And we know Barnie Frank and Nanci Pilosi will not be there to take care of that.

This movie was not that good though. The action was there but it was predictable and much of it was unoriginal. Robert Knepper is the evil culprit, another star from the widely acclaimed Prison Break to spread his wings into other directions. I do not blame him.

One strike against this series is that they are separate from each other. What happened to the beautiful Chinese girl from the first one? Statham's character Frank Martin I guess grue bored of her and decided to relocate to Miami. Why? Now he is back in France but the city mentioned and shown in this movie was Budapest. Hungary has some wonderful scenery which is shown in this movie throughout. No one is going to argue with that.

Martin has to deliver some packages that are not worth much, the unnappealing girl which ofcourse becomes Martin's love interest in the movie is the true package. This is what needs to be delivered to Budapest. Natalya Rudakova is this girl-Valentina, she is a red headed Ukrainian and apparently Hollywood is enraptured with any female actress who is from the Ukraine. The problem is this girl is a far cry from Olga Kurylenko who stars in new Bond film and last year's Hitman.

Knepper plays Johnson, someone who is trying to blackmail the Hungarian minister I presume into signing some papers to allow 8 ships with highly toxic chemicals and poisons onto the mainland. Where these chemicals came from and what exactly they will be used for, I am not sure. Can not be good though.

Statham is a stud but him fighting with his shirt off while she druels over him, what is the viewer supposed to think about this? Male or female. I am not impressed, I do not want to see that. I have to deduct one star just for this uncomfortable scene. He is in this car garage with his friend who seems to have the answer for everything and while they are talking, about 10 guys come out of no where who do not like what Martin is doing. This friend is named Auto, but he seems more of a computer hacker than greasy car mechanic. Where do these bad asses come from? Were they following him? Evidently, why do they not deliver the girl then? They do not want Martin to take the high tech chemical bomb that is around his wrist off what is magnetically or wirelessly linked to a sensor in the car. Whatever.

François Berléand is back as Detective Tarconi and he is not on vacation in this film. His character is still friends with Martin as this film begins and ends with them on a quiet and relaxing fishing trip. He f0llows Martin through Central Europe with the local police magistrate to attempt to aprehend the villians.

There is a cool car chase in the film with some super high speed action. Martin even pops his car on the side, doing a two wheely.

The hip hop music is mixed in, but the action is not spectacular. It is not as unbelievable or just as fantastical as Transporter II which was just so over the top, it is comical. Martin using a jet ski and jumping that on the road and then jumping from that machine to a moving bus is just old school James Bond ridiculous heroics.

The funny scene in the movie occurs when Martin is sitting on his car while a local farmer pulls it out using a tractor my dad could appreciate.

Too many strikes agains this movie. The star girl is not that hot, can not act, does drugs and hard liquor when any half way intelligent person would be taking this situation that she is in much more serious. So obviously she is not half way to the level of any intelligence. Just stupid and borderline unwatchable. She undermines the movie, too skinny and her lines were just terrible. The villians are well organized but it has all been done before. Budapest has not been mentioned by Hollywood in a while so that is fresh but it does not take superlative writing or creativity to make this the central backdrop.

I never critiqued Transporter II, I would have given that one two stars as well. This one is slightly better because it is a little more believable. Transporter I was probably one of the best action packed movies in the past ten years. It has a pretty girl, all star music, stunning action, and a charismatic villian. Four stars for that one, perhaps five.

Therefore, I would allocate this movie two stars. **