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Movie review: ‘Transporter 3’
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
If you came away feeling malnourished from what you had hoped would be another sensual feast from James Bond and company in “Quantum of Solace,” you are urged to draw up a theatre seat before it is too late at the cornucopious banquet that is director Olivier Megaton’s smashing thrill ride, “Transporter 3. ”
Not to take anything away from Daniel Craig’s admirable physical charms and athleticism; but the man who portrays the “transporter,” Frank Martin—Jason Statham—is no poor man’s 007. He’s the real deal; with a money-back guarantee to raise females’ temperatures and make males shake their heads in stupefied admiration. He does this with chiseled looks, unruffled pugilism, smooth wit, gentlemanly carnality and impeccable ingenuity—whether facing multiple hulking, heavily-armed opponents or one breath-taking woman.
Where Quantum left much to be desired in its gadgets, badman and women, Transporter delivers the goods with the vehicle, the villain and the vixen. Toxic waste finds a home in the Ukraine with the approval of its environmental minister (Jeroen Krabbe) or his freckled, leggy daughter (Natalya Rudakova), the Transporter’s “package,” meets a nasty fate.
In charge of putting the pressure on the minister is an international hoodlum (Robert Knepper) who has tricked out Frank’s Audi with liquid explosives magnetically connected to his and Valentina’s industrial strength bracelets.
Move 75 feet from the auto, and they’re reduced to carbon emissions. This set-up makes for some pretty hair-raising moments for Frank when he has to take out cadres of thugs (which in one encounter he does with nothing but his fists and articles of his clothing) or race after the carjacked Audi. As he drives around Eastern Europe—clueless about the reason why— Frank tries to pry information out of the teasingly taciturn girl; who eventually warms to her chauffeur in an arousing enticement of the held-out-for-as-long-as-he-could hero.
Eventually, Frank prevails in spectacular fashion involving the Audi launched off a bridge into a speeding train. Writers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen have delivered the goods in this transporting tale from Lionsgate, rated PG-13 for intense action and violence, some sexual content and drug material.
