During 1995 in the south of France on the French Riviera a Russian Kingpin known as Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic) has decided to take over the prostitution business leaving the last business men dead on the streets. One of his girls, Anna (Loan Chabanol), is left in tears standing on the street as one of his workers. Fifteen years later Anna has grown up and has decided to hire Frank Martin (Ed Skrein), the Transporter, to help her take revenge on Karasov for selling her into prostitution. Frank’s policy no questions just business, a rule he himself ends up breaking especially since Anna and her three musketeers, Gina (Gabriella Wright), Maria (Tatiana Pajkovic) and Qiao (Wenxia Yu) have kidnapped Frank’s father (Ray Stevenson) who happens to be visiting his son, in order to insure Frank keeps his word to help the girls. First task for Frank is to drive the car and pick up two packages which happen to be two girls in blonde wigs that just happened to rob a bank. All for one and one for all, as the saying goes!
Task number two, Frank is to knock out everyone at the Full Moon Club, especially its owner Leo Imasova (Lenn Kudrjawizki) and with the help from a local hospital that job gets accomplished but not without a little hand to hand combat. Task number three a very informal meeting at the airport with Yuri (Yuri Kolokolnikov) which leads to a very bumpy ride through the main terminal and one girl down for the count at least until dad takes care of her with a little Grey Goose and cobwebs. It’s a long story but apparently it works in the movies to stop the bleeding!
It’s not until Dad gets kidnapped by Karasov does the team of girls and Frank get involved in a twist of fate ending up with one true winner in the end. Gant it one month after it is all over this winner actually does the right thing which made for a pretty cool ending to a not so good film.
Where to begin? Well the direction was poor which right off the bat only makes the film almost impossible to save. Even editing was off as in one scene on Karasov’s boat one of the girls in a blonde wig is seen standing in a smaller boat attached to the bigger one. Not possible for that to be since all the girls in that same scene are on the main boat. It was quite a slip up. The writing is not the worse part of the film and I can see where they tried to take on some twists and turns for elements of surprise but that alone cannot help this film. Heck I don’t know if Jason Statham, the original Transporter, could have resurrected this franchise that I think with this version might have truly butchered it. The music worked as does some of the special effects, fight scenes and car chases but overall the film is a decent attempt that failed.
Now for the really bad part of this film, the acting, which was very amateurish. When Skrein walks into his first scene in a parking garage to fight off several dudes out to steal his Audi, grant it the car is hot, he at first did not look the part. He does grow on you a bit as you watch the film but not enough to say he was the right man for the job. As for the Audi, this film was like a massive commercial for what that car can or might do if you ride in one. I hate to say this as well but I kept focusing on Skrein’s teeth which pretty much jump out at you every time he speaks. Although I did like his British accent and he does move pretty well in the fight scenes. Stevenson was one saving grace probably the only one in the story that could act his way out of a paper bag or in this case a bad film. Chabanol tries her best and at times kind of gets close to graduating from acting school but in the end gets held back if you get my drift. Wright, Pajkovic and Yu are alright but mainly because they don’t talk a lot but rather stand and look pretty. Bukvic is ok as the villain but needed to be a bit more ruthless and his sidekick Noemie Lenoir who plays Maissa must have come straight from the director’s couch. Kudrjawizki is just a support to the plot as is Kolokolnikov and for the most part they do well in their roles but overall the film is a disappointment to the franchise. If not for the fight scenes, the car chases and the photography I would have ranked this lower than 1.5 paws out of 4. Wait for this one on DVD and save yourself a few dollars. I’m Jon Patch.
