Movie Review: Transporter 3 (2008)

There is something to be said for delivering exactly what is expected. The Transporter series is all about breathless none-too-serious action sequences, and Transporter 3 delivers.

There is no shortage of one-on-many martial-arts-infused and exquisitely choreographed fights, and several car chases that start by straining the limits of physics and then veer in the direction labelled "wild".

At the middle of it all is Jason Statham as Frank Martin, the professional Transporter, this time in charge of delivering a package consisting of Valentina (Natalya Rudakova, interpreting the role as a grown-up Lolita). She is the daughter of Leonid Vasilev, an Eastern European government minister being threatened by an evil consortium intent on dumping environmentally toxic waste in his country.

Martin and Valentina must race across Europe under the threat of being blown to small pieces by wrist-mounted bombs if they stray too far from Martin's Audi, the car being easily the second most important cast member after Statham himself.

Luc Besson's script has enough of a plot to almost justify all the mayhem, and director Olivier Megaton not only has the coolest name of any action-movie director, but also directs with enough pizazz to blur out the large gaps in logic.

For example, ask not why the men hired by Vasilev to rescue his daughter instigate a murderous high-speed car chase during which they machine-gun the car she's in. The chase is too much fun to make sense, and ultimately, a large dose of enjoyable nonsense fun is what Transporter 3 delivers, wrapped in a hyper-polished package.

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