TRANSPORTER 3

US/France, 2008, 103 minutes, Colour.
Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova, Francois Berleand, Robert Knepper, Jeroen Krabbe.
Directed by Olivier Megaton.

You have to wait only five minutes for the first car chase (and small crash), then fifteen for the first martial arts fight and then only three minutes more for the first major explosion. That's what the Transporter audiences want and that is what they get.

Jason Statham has made a lot of films (similar films) since The Transporter and has established himself as a star of this kind of action film. He is serious, clipped British accent, generally unflappable as he uses his wits and skills to drive into and out of the fastest and riskiest driving commissions he takes on. The only difficulty this time is that he is transporting a young Ukrainian woman, daughter of a minister who is about to give a speech on the environment but is being pressurised by industrialists to sign a document to their advantage in disposing of toxic waste. They have now abducted his daughter as blackmail.

Actually, that is not the precise difficulty. Everyone knows that Statham can do this transporting with ease (though not without chases, a spectacular drive off a bridge, raising his cherished car from the bed of the river with the bags that were in the boot of his car and the air from his tyres, then two spectacular car leaps on to the carriages of a moving train). It is the actress, first timer Natalya Rudakova who is the difficulty. She is meant to be attractive, seductive and causing the Transporter to fall in love with her. Statham's acting does not convince in the romantic department at all. He is merely following what is asked of him in the script. So is she, trying her best which is not nearly good enough.

Robert Knepper is a nasty villain. Jeroen Krabbe is the harassed minister.

Writers, producers and director know ( a documentary maker whose name itself sounds hugely explosive) exactly the kind of adrenalin action that their clientele want and spare little expense on stunt work (though saving costs on the leading lady) to give it to them.

1.The popularity of the Transporter films? Jason Statham as Frank Martin? His personality? The car, the driving, the chases, the crashes, the explosions? The plots and intrigue?

2.The Marseilles and French locations? The trans-European locations? Odessa? The atmosphere of France, of the Ukraine? The pounding musical score and atmosphere?

3.The title, the focus on Frank? His role in the previous films? Establishing a character? A hard man, determined, no private life? His loyalty, his skills in driving? His being employed?

4.Frank and Tarconi, the fishing and the jokes? The memories? Tarconi and his involvement in examining the car chase and the crash in Marseilles? The crash into Frank’s house? The issues and the girl?

5.The opening, the car chase? The young man and the border, (**?or boarder?) the girl? His being pursued through Marseilles? The revelation of Johnson as the mastermind? His trying to employ Frank? Making him an offer he couldn’t refuse?

6.The political implications, the ship with the toxic waster? The captain? The deaths of the men looking for alcohol? The later apprehension of the ship? Johnson and his links with the Ukraine politicians? The photo of Valentina, blackmailing her father, wanting him to sign the agreement with the industrialists?

7.Frank, driving Valentina? The pursuit across central Europe? The pursuit by the minister’s men? Their going over the cliff? Frank and Valentina, her story? The flashbacks? Her being provocative, seductive, Frank and his being seduced? The credibility of this romance? At the end – and their being together with Tarconi fishing?

8.The minister, his anxiety, the speech he was to deliver? The time pressures? The aide and his pressure? Johnson and his contacts?

9.Johnson, the bracelets on their arms, the explosions? Frank and his driving Valentina, going to Odessa? On the bridge, hemmed in, Frank driving the car over the bridge, using the bags to float the car again, phoning Tarconi, the rescue? The pursuit of the train?

10.Johnson and his men on the train, their violence? Johnson as sinister, his comments to Valentina about violence?

11.Frank and his landing the car on the train (and the repeat of the stunt work on the separated carriage)? His fight with Johnson? The issue of the bracelet? Johnson uncoupling the carriages? Frank’s final confrontation, the bracelet on Johnson, the explosion?

12.The minister and his freedom, tearing up the document, going to give his speech?

13.Valentina, the happy ending – and the possibility of Transporter 4?