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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: March 10, 2009 Distributor: Lions Gate Director: · Olivier Megaton Cast: · Jason Statham · Natalya Rudakova · Francois Berleand · Robert Knepper Related Sites: · IMDb: Transporter 3 Grade: B-

"What if we made a film that was 99% car chases and fight scenes?"

That's pretty much the premise of "Transporter 3," the latest vehicle for Jason Statham to strut his stuff. And he's got reason to strut, given just how good he looks in a suit and tie while fighting off an angry mob in burly brawls choreographed with balletic precision.

Statham reprises his role of Frank Martin, the silent but deadly transporter who drives packages without asking questions. He gets stuck with a job he doesn't want in this third film of the franchise when he discovers that the package being delivered is a young woman, Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) -- the logic-challenged daughter of a Ukraine leader, being held as ransom in exchange for the politician signing documents allowing freighters of garbage to come into his country.

Complicating matters is the bracelet that both Frank and Valentina wear, a bracelet programmed to explode if it wanders beyond so many feet of the car.

Robert Knepper plays the bad guy, Mr. Johnson, who ultimately ends up going one-on-one with Frank (holding his own well enough to make one wonder why he needed to hire all those ineffectual bodyguards), while Francois Berleand portrays the always-close-behind Inspector Tarconi.

I'd like to tell you there's more to the movie than that, but this rather neatly sums up the entirety of the plot. Ultimately, however, this film is more about looking cool than in making you think. Rudakova's Valentina is an annoyance to both Frank as well as the audience, with mood swings that happen at most inappropriate times. Frank's eventual romantic interest in her is almost as inexplicable, so whatever Valentina has must be catching. But if you want to see a bunch of high-speed chases, crashes, hand-to-hand combat, and tensely delivered one-liners, there are worse ways to reach the bottom of the popcorn bowl than with "Transporter 3."

Bonus features on this release include an audio commentary with director Olivier Megaton and a digital download copy of the film for your Windows or Mac compatible media player. There's also the requisite "making of" featurette, a story board comparison with finished scenes from the film, and featurettes focusing on the visual effects and studio sets. Of some interest is the fifteen minute documentary, "Special Delivery: Transporters in the Real World." Here, various special operations and military personnel are interviewed about what transporters are and how they operate. Curiously, one fellow who talks from the shadows isn't all that obscured, and a little gamma-correction to a stillshot shows him quite clearly, so let's hope he wasn't relying on the lack of illumination protecting his identity.

Previews on this disc include "Crank 2: High Voltage," "Punisher: War Zone," "Bangkok Dangerous," "The Spirit," and "War."