The Transporter Refueled (2015) EuropaCorp Distribution/Action RT: 96 minutes Rated PG-13 (sequences of violence and action, sexual material, some language, a drug reference, thematic elements) Director: Camille Delamarre Screenplay: Luc Besson, Bill Collage and Adam Cooper Music: Alexandre Azaria Cinematography: Christophe Collette Release date: September 4, 2015 (US) Cast: Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson, Loan Chabanol, Gabriella Wright, Tatjana Pajkovic, Wenxia Yu, Radivoje Bukvic, Noemie Lenoir , Lenn Kudjawizki, Anatole Taubman. Box Office: $16M (US)/$72.6M (World)
Rating: **
With The Transporter Refueled, the franchise is officially out of gas. I knew something was wrong when the studio moved its release from June to the last weekend of summer. That’s always a bad sign.
It’s lame for reasons other than new lead star Ed Skrein (Game of Thrones) who’s clearly no substitute for Jason Statham. Statham would eat this wimp for breakfast. Statham looks like he can do serious harm to anybody dumb enough to wrong him. There’s absolutely nothing intimidating about the British rapper-turned-actor. His line readings sound like somebody doing a bad impression of Statham. He completely lacks the dry wit of his predecessor. As Frank Martin aka “The Transporter”, Skrein isn’t at all convincing. He’s more like a random guy just standing in until the real guy shows up.
Another big misstep is taking away the mystique of the character by bringing his spy father (Stevenson, Thor) into the story. In the original movies, we knew nothing about Frank’s past except that he was with Special Forces. In The Transporter Refueled, his father calls him “Junior” and criticizes him for his faults (e.g. his tendency to be tardy). What worked in the third Indiana Jones movie fails miserably here.
The plot, which actually feels more like a rejected Taken script, has Frank going up against Russian mob boss Karasov (Bukvic, A Good Day to Die Hard) who made his fortune by forcing girls as young as 12 into prostitution. I’m sure he commits other illegal acts, but the emphasis is on forced prostitution. It isn’t Frank’s choice to take on Karasov (a former Special Forces colleague, by the way); he’s part of larger revenge scheme cooked up four of his girls. Anna (Chabanol, Third Person), the ringleader, hires him services- ostensibly as a getaway driver- but breaks one of his cardinal rules (the one about changing the terms of the original deal) by bringing along two accomplices. In order to ensure Frank’s compliance, they’ve kidnapped his father and will only release him when they’ve returned safely to their hideout. Only that isn’t the end of it. They want to destroy their soon-to-be-former boss and need Frank’s help to do it. Once again, they leave him no choice but to aid them in their mission of revenge.
The plot and fight scenes in The Transporter Refueled, directed in rote fashion by Camille Delamarre (Brick Mansions), are very generic. The closest thing to a “YEAH, RIGHT!” moment is when Frank drives his car through an airport terminal, but even that feels perfunctory.
I’m a big fan of Luc Besson, I thought last year’s Lucy was awesome, but one gets the impression that his involvement with The Transporter Refueled is minimal. It doesn’t have the same unique flavor as the previous three installments. The fight scenes don’t have the same frenzied feel either. You don’t feel the same thrill as when Statham beats up groups of bad guys. At one point, Skrein uses a life preserver to subdue an opponent, a move that’s more Jackie Chan than Statham. In another scene, Frank Sr. goes all MacGyver when he treats a bullet wound using sugar, vodka, perfume and cobwebs. I actually liked Stevenson’s character, kind of a letch really, jumping into bed with his hooker captors a la James Bond. He doesn’t belong in this movie.
Besides the boilerplate storyline and lifeless action sequences, the dialogue and acting are awful. Even the French Riviera scenery seems dull. As hopelessly misguided and misconceived The Transporter Refueled is, it never rises above or sinks below mediocrity. It’s just like any other Hollywood actioner. Not only is it a completely unnecessary reboot, it’s a completely unnecessary movie. They didn’t need to fix what wasn’t broken. If anything, it’s a downgrade. Only Statham might have been able to save it, but he’s got better things to do. This particular make and model should be discontinued.
