Transporter franchise has run out of gas
The Transporter: Refueled (out of 4) Starring Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol and Ray Stevenson. Directed by Camille Delamarre. Opens Friday at GTA theatres. 100 minutes.
PG
Can it really be seven years since Jason Statham buckled up for his third and final feature stint for The Transporter action series?
This was back when gasoline prices were scary and Statham all the more so, a brooding stack of stubble-cheeked beefcake still awaiting the greater stardom afforded by The Expendables and Fast & Furious franchises.
It would be nice to report that Statham is back to burn rubber and bust skulls for The Transporter: Refueled, but alas, it’s a reboot running without him — and also on fumes. Producer Luc Besson is determined to wring every last euro out of this concept, having also taken it to TV in recent years. The gas gauge is reading “empty.”
The reboot has Ed Skrein ( Game of Thrones) assuming the role of Frank Martin, a driver of mortician attire and ninja manner whose idea of conversation is to state his increasingly pointless rules of engagement for himself and his sleek black Audi, the only returning “actor.”
Frank demands punctuality, anonymity and consistency for his high-value and low-legality deliveries. He peevishly threatens to cancel any deal that varies, as they invariably do.
Not to bust Skrein’s ball bearings, because he’s a capable actor, but when Statham laid down the law, he looked like he could do serious damage to any offending customers, and he often did.
The considerably lighter Skrein looks as if he’d sooner dial 911 than deliver a knuckle sandwich, although he acquits himself well enough in the action set pieces where generic stooges convene.
He’s easily outsmarted by Anna (Loan Chabanol), a former prostitute out to get serious revenge on her pimp, a vile Russian human trafficker (Radivoje Bukvic) who enslaved and exploited her and other unlucky and enraged supermodel types.
The women have hatched a payback plan that will rope in not only Frank, but also his dad, Frank Martin Sr. (Ray Stevenson), a retired spy who seems absolutely delighted to have something to do, even if that involves being kidnapped while shopping for fine wine.
Neither Besson nor director Camille Delamarre (he edited Transporter 3) have much care for a plot, apart from tooling around gorgeous Riviera waterfront locales in the south of France and running the clock down so the film stretches to feature length.
The action scenes ape ones done better elsewhere, including in previous Transporter movies and Besson’s equally played-out Taken series. The only really clever setup has Frank using sliding bank vault drawers to outwit pursuers, although you can be sure that someone like Jackie Chan would have made more of a game out it.
The Transporter: Refueled brings to mind the taunt from the bad guy in Transporter 3, when he foolishly suggested “the Stath” wasn’t really essential behind the wheel: “I’ve been thinking any idiot with a driver’s licence would do.”
Incredibly, this seems to have been Besson’s guiding philosophy for this bootless reboot.