THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED
Ed Skrein as Frank Martin / Loan Chabanol as Anna / Lenn Kudrjawizki as Leo Imasov / Radivoje Bukvić as Karasov / Gabriella Wright as Gina / Ray Stevenson as Frank Martin Sr. Directed by Camille Delamarre / Written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and Luc Besson |
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THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED – which I think is a sort of sequel, sort of reboot to the three previous TRANSPORTER films – is one of the most unnecessary and cheaply disposal films that I’ve seen in many a moon. I have a been a fairly staunch apologist of the
absurdly enjoyable mayhem that THE TRANSPORTER series has bestowed upon
us, but even I can’t really justify the existence of this overstuffed,
undercooked, and dreadfully dull fourth film.
Aside from a few moments of genuine white knuckled joy to be
derived from some of the film’s more outlandishly engineered action
beats, THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED stinks of overt and petty desperation
through and through. There’s
something also really amiss about this production.
I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Oh yeah! Jason Statham
is completely AWOL. Rumors
have circulated that a low paying salary for this fourth entry was one of
the primary reasons for the steely-eyed actor’s unwillingness to return.
That, and perhaps he had the keen foresight to understand that you
can only creatively take this character and his franchise so far before it
becomes perfunctory and nonsensical.
After seeing the final product, I don’t criticize Statham’s
lack of involvement, but rather applaud it.
Replacing him is former GAME OF THRONES star Ed Skrein, who
certainly has the muscle bound brawn to effectively convey a man of dexterous
blunt force violence. Yet, on
a level of personality he seems all kinds of wrong.
Statham’s cooler than cool charisma - and self-deprecating
awareness of the series’ wicked implausibility – helped to make his
TRANSPORTER films all the more easily watchable.
Skrein, by direct comparison, feels more like an inferior eleventh
hour substitute and poser. Viewers
that have not been exposed to the last several TRANSPORTER films will
probably feel hopelessly lost when it comes to character dynamics here,
whereas die hard fans of the franchise will simply grow to care less as
the film progresses. For the
uninitiated, THE TRANSPORTER series deals with the gravity and logic
defying adventures of Frank Martin, an ex-Special Forces soldier that now
makes ends meet in southern France as a limitlessly skilled getaway driver
that has a tricked out car that would make Batman blush with envy.
Of course, just like every other loner action hero, he lives by
aggressively self-imposed rules in terms of what kind of jobs he’ll do
and specific parameters that are a part of them.
Now, anyone familiar with the last three films will laughingly
recall that Frank seems to essentially throw out his own rule book, at
least when the screenplay deemed it completely necessary. THE
TRANSPORTER REFUELED returns Frank back into the fold, albeit with – as
mentioned – a different actor in Skrein at the helm.
Frank is still a transporter for hire, taking all forms of
suspicious packages and people on potentially dangerous missions for a
disgustingly high payday. He
gets in proverbially way, way over his head when he takes a job from Anna
(Loan Chabanol), which initially looks like a relatively easy and normal
pick up for him. However, it
soon becomes apparent that Anna and her three accomplices have
orchestrated a bank robbery and have – gasp! – kidnapped Frank’s
father (Ray Stevenson), making Frank’s mission all the more dangerously
uncertain. Frank does
discover that Anna and her squad are a quartet of prostitutes that wish to
get revenge on a vile Russian mobster/human trafficker (Yuri Kolokolnikov)
for treating them all like trash for several years.
Rather predictably, Frank finds himself begrudgingly working with
these women to both secure his father’s freedom and to take down this brutal
thug. On
a positive, THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED is a piece of swift Eurotrash action
cinema that displays mercy in being…short.
I guess that there is a certain level of thrills to be had in
watching Frank use whatever is at his disposal in order to thwart his
adversaries (usually either his fists or his car). One creative – but
insanely far-fetched – sequence has Frank careen his car around a street
and pitch perfectly knocks the caps off of multiple fire hydrants.
Director Camille Delamarre (whom previously made the inexcusably
bad BRICK MANSIONS) displays some
fun in showcasing the film’s eccentrically oddball stunts, which is on
chief display in the film’s ape shit crazy finale involving a yacht and
jet skis. I have never, ever demanded realism, per se, in any of
THE TRANSPORTER films. I've only demanded to be entertained by their penchant for
deliriously over-the-top spectacle. In
this way, THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED modestly delivers. Yet,
damn it, the elephant in the room that constantly stymied my overall
enjoyment of this film is the lack of Statham in it.
He felt oddly plausible as a magnetically brooding and intense
physical presence in this series; he essentially carried what would have
been an instantly forgettable car chase action series with someone else in
the lead role. Now, I
certainly don’t dislike Skrein as an actor, not to mention that’s he seems wholeheartedly up to the task of executing multiple
martial arts-infused fight sequences with a real rugged might.
The real problem is that he just seems too coldly detached and
lacks charm in the role. He
also takes the role as seriously as a heart attack.
There’s rarely a moment featuring Skrein giving audience members an
all-knowing wink that he’s in on the joke that is this film, whereas
Statham sort of achieved the impossible dichotomy of playing his role
straight while fully acknowledging the ludicrousness that surrounded him. The
writing in THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED is also abysmally giggle inducing.
When the film isn’t dishing out high octane action sequences it
has even more scenes of characters engaging in expository heavy
(and heavy handed) dialogue exchanges that are so wooden that the actors
come off more like department store mannequins than flesh and blood
people. Ray Stevenson might
be the only actor among the bunch that seems to display a mischievous
twinkle in his eye on a performance level, but his father character seems
more like a pathetic victim of the film’s lackluster scripting.
Granted, the only time that THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED seems to have
a pulse of intrigue is when he’s on screen with Skrein, but the whole
potentially compelling father/son dynamic here is kind of wasted. It’s funny, but we live in a relative era when other notable franchises like THE FAST AND FURIOUS and most recently the ROCKY series with CREED have managed to find a manner of making themselves feel fresh and relevant…even with extremely late entries in the respective franchises. THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED seems to display no interest whatsoever in terms of radically reinventing itself. Instead, it lazily goes back to the creative well with a half-hearted entry that seems to exist primarily to make a quick buck regardless of quality. The three previous TRANSPORTER films, warts and all, had their engines fully tuned and put their pedals to the metal. THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED seems like it’s pathetically out of gas and barely makes its way out of the driveway. |
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