THE TRANSPORTER 3 MOVIE

Ahead of its time, the key crisis involves Ukraine and Russia, and the villain's love of a certain NBC reality show host circa '08 feels far more pointed now thatВ said personality has gone on to bigger and more frightening things that also somehow involve Russia and Ukraine.Д«ut while this was a somewhat disappointing threequel back in the day, it plays better in hindsight. Valentina is the MacGuffin in a plot that takes forever to reveal itself, probably because it's ultimately so simple that if it were explained upfront there'd be nothing left to talk about. And it's Frank who steadily loses clothes in fights and gets objectified by Valentina. Their uncomfortable sex scene has maybe dated the most, with her essentially harassing him into it it is at least a gender-reversal spin on Bond pressuring the ladies to do likewise. The one aspect that does carry over is a female lead who looks borderline inappropriately young for Statham, in this case newcomer Natalya Rudakova as Valentina, the latest 'cargo' for our Transporter's inevitably suicidal mission that he'll somehow escape from.

THE TRANSPORTER 3 MOVIE

Rather than indulge the established craziness, Megaton seems more interested in making the movie into 'James Bond, but in a car all the time.' The script even explicitly has Frank break all of his established rules, caring little for what has gone before. A new plot gimmick (proximity bomb) keeps Frank from leaving his car for long, but sadly that doesn't lead to more of the kind of nutso car-fu that the prior film had us enjoying. Yuen kept choreographing the fights, but Megaton and editors Camille Delamarre and Carlo Rizzo (the former of whom would direct the subsequent Statham-less installment) insist on such unnecessary cuts and flourishes that it doesn't look as good as it might in long takes. The directing on the series had a pretty steady decline, from Cory Yuen to Louis Leterrier to Olivier Megaton.

The transporter 3