Transporter 3: Critic Reviews

Makes good on its formula with no pretensions.

To chart the differences between Transporter 3 and its two predecessors is as pointless as trying to parse its flimsy plot.

Statham is a relatively entertaining action hero - though he is better in the Crank films. The script is by Besson, but the director is Olivier Megaton, whose surname is the most exciting thing about the film.

Somehow Statham comes out of this improbable thriller with his dignity intact. With classic action-hero qualities and dry wit, he seems woefully under-employed as a deliveryman.

For those who believe that more is better, Transporter 3 is the best of the unapologetically ridiculous series.

More with these sequels is always less. The proportions haven't been right since 2002.

Here's all fans need to know: Yes, Statham strips to the waist multiple times; yes, two dozen hopelessly outnumbered kung fu goons take on our lone hero one by one; and yes, he manages to outpace his Audi by bicycling through a congested sweatshop.

His misadventures are fun for us, too, as long as Megaton keeps the focus where it belongs: on the car chases and Corey Yuen-choreographed fight scenes. But then romance intrudes and ruins everything.

Although Megaton's CGI fight scenes are as chopped up and incomprehensible as the current norm, he mostly avoids the Queasy-Cam and uses a stable camera while only the action moves. How about that.

It's hard not to smile.

An action franchise in motion tends to stay in motion, long after logic or box office should bring it to a screeching halt.

The franchise takes a good turn in Transporter 3.

Transporter 3 is so bad it's good, and it knows it.

[An] anemic sequel.

If things get much more dismal for the Transporter, he'll be running pizzas for Domino's.

The director of the third Transporter movie has given himself the name 'Olivier Megaton.' Too easy, you say? Very well. Make your own 'bomb' joke.

You know a series is in trouble when it begins mocking its own premise. Frank's obsessive rules about who, what and how he transports stuff are ruthlessly violated.

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.

The Transporter movies are considered by many to be a guilty pleasure, and maybe I'd feel that way, too, if I ever felt any guilt at the movies.

The most frustrating entry into a series that has never set the bar terribly high.

The third time's the bomb -- and not in a good way.