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Transporter 3


5.9

based on 26 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, some sexual content and drug material

Starring Jason Statham, Francois Berleand, Natalya Rudakova, Robert Knepper, Jeroen Krabbe, Alex Kobold, David Atrakchi, and Yann Sundberg

Frank Martin has been pressured into transporting Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for the Ukraine, from Marseilles through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi, Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger. Despite Valentina’s cynical disposition and his resistance to get involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another. (Lionsgate)

GENRE(S):	Action
WRITTEN BY:	Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen
DIRECTED BY:	Olivier Megaton
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: November 26, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Statham isn't an actor who coasts, not even in a recklessly enjoyable picture like Transporter 3. He does the work, so we don't have to: His Frank Martin is the personification of pleasure without guilt.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The villainous Polluter-in-Chief is eloquently played by Robert Knepper, familiarly loathsome as T-Bag on Fox's "Prison Break." And when Knepper and Statham get together, there's a fine showdown of grimaces.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

What makes it all work is that Frank remains a self-made hero.

Washington Post Mike Mayo

Overall, the production has the polish and pace that producer/co-writer Luc Besson's work is known for. Any complaints about the lack of substance are pointless.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

The end result is "Mission: Impossible" meets "Speed": high-tech gizmos, exotic European locales, and hair-raising stunts, many performed by Statham himself, who, when he's not shirtless, looks spiffy in Dior.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In a series elevated by high-flying ridiculousness, Transporter 3 falls a couple of sequences short of the standard, but it does show off Statham's considerable dirt-biking skills. For that, at least, it's kinda rad.

TV Guide Jeremy Wheeler

Though this third installment is not quite as nuts as the second film, it's nevertheless firmly set in the same ridiculous mold.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A perfectly acceptable brainless action thriller.

Chicago Tribune Christopher Borrelli

The best sequences involve Frank's inventive ability to stay within 75 feet of his car, but otherwise, it's the charismatic unruffled dexterity in the face of impossible odds that rivets.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Though the car chases have grown more banal as the franchise has started to run on fumes, the smackdowns have retained their zing.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

As action movies seem to get more complicated and convoluted with international conspiracies and technological concepts, the "Transporter" franchise is refreshingly simple.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Transporter 3 is so far over the top that it more than once spills into outright cartoonishness.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

If you're going to a no-frills action film, though, at least you want the action to be entertaining, which is where Transporter 3 falls down.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Somehow Statham comes out of this improbable thriller with his dignity intact.

Variety John Anderson

Boasts a measure of the retro machismo, style and attitude some 007 fans have found lacking in "Quantum of Solace." But it also has a pointless storyline, incoherent editing and a polyglot cast that renders some of the dialogue utterly incomprehensible.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Transporter 3 is the most frustrating entry into a series that has never set the bar terribly high.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

For those disappointed in the grim, gritty feel of the latest James Bond movie and who long for the absurdity of the Roger Moore-era entries, Transporter 3, ought to fit the bill.

Village Voice Jim Ridley

The movie has more lags in action than either of the previous episodes, and somehow the dialogue is even more daft

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Statham could do these movies in his sleep by now, so he gets credit for offering up so much dry wit. In fact, while Rudakova makes a painful acting debut, Statham appears more engaged than he has in a while.

Empire Chris Hewitt

Incoherent and inconsistent, this is a step back for Statham in his quest to become more than a cult figure.

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

The film does contain a couple of interesting thrills here and there. However, this film would have been better off thrown straight to DVD.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Transporter 3 is made for airplane viewing, and not just any airplane: an Eastern European one, on the flight from Hrubbishnik to Slutnya.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

At one point, Statham chases down a sports car while pedaling madly on a kids' bike. Pathétique!

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The thrill of the ridiculousness is gone. So is all the mystery that made Statham so appealing in the first place.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Easily the worst in a trilogy that has been notable mainly for the presence of its everyman action star, Transporter 3 is a nonsensical, choppily edited bore, with awful dialogue.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

The fight scenes are lackluster and the plot is needlessly complicated. If you're making an action film that centers on fast cars and fast women, it's usually best to keep the rest of the story simple.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Aron J. gave it a5:
I enjoyed the action scenes, but the dialogue was pretty horrible. It seemed the only real appeal to this movie is the action scenes and the plot was somewhat ignored

Corb G gave it a1:
Not nearly as fun as the last 2. The love interest is one of the worst characters in recent movie history. Skip this movie!!!!

Chad S. gave it a7:
So how does the filmmaker improve on Jason Stratham jumping his car onto a moving train from a bridge? You coax Burt Reynolds out of action movie retirement and put him behind the wheel to thwart Smokey one last time. Frank Martin needs a moustache. He needs a ten-gallon hat, too. Any man with the balls to jump disjoining train cars, should at the very least, let out a lusty "yee-haw!" while cheating death. It's not that hard to imagine a retooled "Smokey and the Bandit" looking a little bit like "Transporter 3" if Hollywood decided to remake the best-remembered car chase movie from the Reynolds oeuvre. In today's market, bigger is better, so probably the Bandit would have to do something more pressing and continental than be the transporter of beer over county lines. In the Hal Needham "classic"(well, to be fair, maybe it's the "Citizen Kane" of the "good ol' boys" genre), Sally Field existed solely as the love interest; she was just along for the ride. In an updated "Smokey and the Bandit", the love interest would be more integral to the plot, like Valentina(Natalya Rudakova) is, even though Frank and the film itself collude to Sally Field her, initially, by not revealing why the Russian(sorry, Ukranian) girl is making the cross-country trip with him. Like "Hitman" before it, European locales helps immeasurably with a whole lot of banalities, because they're banalities enmeshed in atmosphere. In "Transporter 3", a car hurtles over a Budapest cliff before exploding in flames.

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