Most of the time, I get annoyed when movies have plots that are really weak. Every so often, I can enjoy those types of movies if I'm in the right mood.  Usually when that happens, the movies in question are action movies that still manage to be entertaining despite the plot issues.  I enjoyed The Transporter and Transporter 2 even though the plots weren't that strong for the most part.  When I found out that Transporter 3 was coming out, I was interested since I had enjoyed the first two movies even though I fully expected the plot to be weak.

Frank Martin had a reputation for being a very good driver and transporter.  That reputation got him into trouble when someone didn't want to take no for an answer for a job offer.  Frank was forced into working for Johnson who wanted something delivered.  Frank wasn't pleased when he found out that a woman, Valentina, was going along for the ride.  Frank and Valentina were wearing special bracelets courtesy of Johnson that would explode if they got too far away from the car.  Frank was trying to find a way out of the mess for him and Valentina while making his way to the ultimate destination.  Frank ultimately found out that the job was connected to an attempt to force a government official to do something.

Only Frank, his job and his friend Tarconi carried over the first two movies.  There weren't any storylines that carried into Transporter 3 and really nothing from those movies was mentioned either.  I think this movie stands alone fairly well, though Frank might be slightly more developed if the previous movies had already been watched.  There was no indication of how much time had passed since the end of the second movie.  The movie was written by Luc Besson, the man who created the character to begin with.  

Transporter 3 is not a movie that is going to offer any sort of intellectual stimulation.  This is a movie just to watch for some mindless entertainment, and if expectations aren't too high, it can be entertaining and enjoyable for the most part.  The plot was very simple and really not that different from the previous two movies, especially The Transporter.  The movie was back to being set in Europe and a woman was mixed up in Frank's job and provides more complications for him.  I thought that the movie was still entertaining, but the situations that Frank kept getting in did seem a bit stale.  The movie was very predictable overall, though there were one or two small surprises.

The action started in Transporter 3 within the first few minutes with a high speed car chase through very narrow streets in France.  Frank wasn't involved, and in fact had an iron tight alibi for the police, but he had a connection that came out a little later and basically led to him being forced into the job.  I think Frank was supposed to still be taking jobs as a driver.  Several fights and a few cars chases provided the action.  Frank was a very good driver and fighter.  He was frequently in fights with several other men but he always beat the crap out of all of them and didn't get even a scratch, sometimes while shedding clothes in the process.  I'm still not sure why he ended up getting half naked in the one fight, but I'm not complaining since he looked really good without a shirt.  That fight especially was unbelievable because there were so many other men going after him with pipes or some sort of large metal objects, yet he didn't get hurt and really didn't even look like he had been in a fight.  It did seem like once again more fights were tossed into the movie just so Frank would have an excuse to beat the crap out of more people.  The action sequences did look impressive when the camera wasn't so shaky that I couldn't tell what was going on.  The editing during some of the action scenes, especially the fights, had a lot of quick cuts and even some effect thing to sort of blur things that just wasn't needed at all.

All the fights did add some violence, but it wasn't too excessive since Transporter 3 was rated PG-13.  Surprisingly with all the people that Frank beat up, there was very little, if any blood shown.  There wasn't as much shooting as I remember from the first two movies, but there seemed to be an attempt to make up for that late in the movie with a lot of shooting in a few scenes.  I did hear the word that rhymes with luck once.  This isn't a movie that would be a good choice for children.  Frank said a few things throughout the movie that were funny and lightened the mood a little bit.  There was also one or two things that were funny because of how far fetched they were.  

There was an attempt to add in a bit of romance to Transporter 3 through the relationship between Frank and Valentina.  They didn't meet under the best circumstances and things were intense for them.  She wouldn't even talk to him for the longest time, so it didn't seem that believable that they would then end up having sex.  She did notice when he was dropping clothes during the one fight and it was made clear that she liked what she saw.  She later forced him to repeat the stripping by holding the car keys hostage.  That scene seemed really awkward and out of place, though I had no problem with seeing his bare chest again.  I really didn't think there was that strong a connection or much chemistry between them, so what happened between them just didn't work for me.

Frank seemed to be the same as he had been in the first two movies, though it wasn't clear how often he was working of what sort of jobs he had been taking recently.  He originally turned down the job from Johnson, but the reason for why he did that wasn't shared so I'm left to wonder if it was just that job in particular he had an issue with of if he had turned to taking more legitimate driving jobs overall.  He still wore an impeccable black suit while working and he was able to fight effectively while wearing it.  He had his rules for jobs, but he didn't bring them up as often as he had in the previous movies.  He was more willing to bend or even ignore them.  He did show that he could be kind, something that came out in the previous movies as well.  Jason Statham handled the part very well.

Valentina was the young, somewhat wild woman who was involved in Frank's job.  She wouldn't talk to him at first and she wasn't overly friendly when she did finally talk.  She did seem surprised by Frank acting kindly toward her.  She did seem to have some mood swings and she was annoying at times, like when she popped some sort of pill and then was acting like an idiot.  The character wasn't developed enough for her relationship with Frank to be believable.  I wasn't impressed with Natalya Rudakova's performance.  Her very heavy accent made it hard to understand her at times.

Tarconi and Frank had been friends for a while despite the fact that Tarconi was a police officer.  They seemed to have a good friendship and they trusted each other.  Tarconi didn't always agree with Frank's methods, but he did try to help him.  Francois Berleand was good in the part.  Johnson was the villain for the movie and the man forcing Frank to do the job.  He was not a nice guy and was willing to go to extreme measures to get what he wanted accomplished.  He was working for someone else, so he was kind of like an enforcer who made sure things happened.  Robert Knepper handled the part well.  There were some various thugs working for Johnson that turned up that were very flat characters.  They seemed to really only be around for Johnson to yell at or for Frank to beat the crap out of.  The government official that was pulled into what was going on turned up a few times as well without being developed or having much to do.

Main Cast

Francois Berleand - Tarconi
Robert Knepper - Johnson  
Natalya Rudakova - Valentina
Jason Statham - Frank Martin

Olivier Megaton - Director

Transporter 3 worked as a mindless action movie, though too much of the movie seemed to be just repeating situations from the first movie.  The plot had several issues and Valentina was an annoying character, but the movie still managed to be entertaining.  People that enjoyed the first two movies may still enjoy this one.

The Transporter ~ Transporter 2 ~ Transporter 3 ~

Jason Statham Movie Reviews
The Bank Job ~ Cellular ~ Collateral ~ Crank ~ Death Race ~ The Italian Job ~ The Pink Panther ~ War ~

Recommended: Yes