​FILMS

the transporter refueled

2015 review number 141:

The Transporter Refueled: (Action/Thriller): 55 out of 100: Jason Statham is not the best actor going around but there's something about him that makes him so appealing. He played Frank Martin in three Transporter movies. In the fourth instalment of this franchise, he has been replaced by someone named Ed Skrein. Statham is a quality actor compared to this bloke. To rub salt in the wound, he plays the same character and throughout the film you wish that it was Jason Statham kicking butt, not Ed Skrein.

 

In the south of France, former special-ops mercenary Frank Martin finds himself thrust into danger when prostitute Anna (Loan Chabanol) and her accomplices Gina (Gabriella Wright), Maria (Tatiana Pajkovic) and Qiao (Wenxia Yu) orchestrate a bank robbery to avenge Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic), a human trafficker who had victimised Anna 15 years earlier. Frank reluctantly agrees to be their getaway driver after discovering that the girls have kidnapped his father (Ray Stevenson) and threaten to kill him if Frank doesn't help out.

 

The main thing that this movie has going for it is its spectacular action scenes, especially those involving the numerous car chases. Magnificent use is made of the French streets where the scenery is maximised to full effect. The action scenes are brilliantly edited and contribute to the efficient pacing. Unfortunately, the story and acting let the rest of the film down. The femme fatales are beautiful but wooden. Stevenson and Skrein deliver most of their lines in such a way that they exhibit little emotion. Sometimes the bad guy can steal the scenes in this type of movie but even Bukvic isn't all that menacing. The story is preposterous at times and it requires you to suspend a huge amount of disbelief.

 

The script tries to include humour through bantering between father and son but this tends to be boring. There is a constant joke running throughout the film about Frank's timing but this wears thin after a while. It might have been a better film if there was less talking because a lot of what the characters have to say is rubbish. 

 

This is still better than the recent Hitman: Agent 47 as the action scenes are more exciting. It passes the time but one does hope for Jason Statham to be in the movie rather than Ed Skrein. It will be interesting to see where the Transporter series goes from here with a lacklustre return of the latest instalment at the US box office.

 

Starring Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson and Loan Chabanol

(96 minutes)

Parental advice: Violence and course language

Additional scene during or after credits: No

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weqzAM5LCIY (Movie trailer)

(Reviewed on Wednesday 23rd September, 2015)

 

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