Jason Statham is back as Frank Martin, transporting goods for a set price and earning himself a nice little fortune.
Like any other job, Frank is in a meeting discussing the terms with a client. After the meeting Frank states that he is unavailable, and gives the client the contact details of another Transporter.
Sometime later this other Transporter crashes into Frank apartment after a car chase, with a strange bracelet attached to his wrist. When the ambulance arrive they take the man away, and after reaching a certain distance the bracelet exploded killing everyone in the ambulance and leaving Frank, who tries to stop the ambulance (a little too late) watching in horror, before being knocked out and taken away by a man.
Frank wakes up with a new bracelet, and a job offer he can’t refuse. Get on the road, follow his instructions and don’t go too far away from the car – or he’ll be blown up!
You don’t control the Transporter!
Jason Statham’s character is deadly, smart and seemingly unbeatable at this kind of thing, but it’s at a whole new level in The Transporter 3.
Naturally he does what he can to remove the bracelet but it simply won’t come off! He gets into some tense situations while he transports his package, a young Ukrainian girl, to the desired destination. He ends up going off course, getting into fights, winning, and repeating that formula – seems to be how the character of Frank martin works, housing Jason Statham’s brand of action pretty well.
Unlike the second movie, the over milked action seems to be toned down and we see a more down to Earth movie that is much more watchable than the second, and more recognizable to the first.
There are some pretty crazy scenes though, as Frank must get out of some very sticky situations including his car being stolen from him, to which he must chase the escaping car and get it back to avoid being blown to smithereens. So it was good to see things get at least a little more inventive. But aside from the bracelet Frank is still the man – stopping bad guys, being inventive and getting the edge at any given time.
It’s a pretty basic story though as the plot is basically ‘Jason Statham has to Transport something or get blown up – so he eventually goes after the guy responsible for the whole mess’.
The Action & Martial Arts
The car action is right where it belongs. But everyone’s favorite, the martial arts fight scenes, are cranked up a bit.
The fights are just as exciting as the two previous films, fast furious and showcasing a variety of moves.
The variety of the fights themselves is a little narrower though. Every scene seems to begin with 8 or more men surrounding Statham in a circle before he goes nuts on them – it’s almost a little too rehearsed. Luckily they are done so well you can ignore this and simply enjoy the action.
The added tension of the bracelet made for an interesting movie though, as Frank’s location was always known to his ’employer’.
The car stunts were impressive but not as ridiculous as the second movie (I have an image of of Frank’s car flipping to unhook a bomb – terrible), but the chases are realistic, mostly. The only scene where I’d say the car chase was unrealistic was also incredibly well done – where Frank drives his car on two wheels between two trucks. I didn’t mind that as it was pulled off pretty nicely.
As always the movie is a blend of car and fight action sequences that the Transporter movie series as managed to present so well.
Do I Recommend It?
Not the greatest film, but pretty damn entertaining. Check it out for sure!
On Blu Ray –
Region A (US & Canada)
Transporter 3 [Blu-ray]
Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
Transporter 3 [Blu-ray]
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Transporter 3 on DVD
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Transporter 3 [DVD]
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Transporter 3 on DVD
