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The Transporter Refuelled… or was it The Transporter Refueled? Yes, that ‘l’ makes all the difference. Or at least tells in which country you’re watching it.
Frank Martin (Ed Skrein) never breaks a sweat, he never uses the phone while he’s driving and his job this time is transporting hot prostitutes, all complete with their prostitute-red lipstick, enslaved by the pimp Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic) who looks like he hasn’t had a good wash inbetween the 15 years that time passes between 1995 and 2010 – the two time points in this film – assuming he was fragrant to begin with. Why not 2000 and 2015, to make it up to date?
Daddy, Frank Senior (Ray Stevenson), is retiring from his job selling Evian water (really??) and his son is cajolled into driving the threesome of Anna (Loan Chabanol), Gina (Gabriella Wright) and Qiao (Miss World 2012 winner Wenxia Yu) because they’re holding Daddy hostage.
It’s directed by Camille Delamarre who made a great job with Brick Mansions, a film I didn’t expect an awful lot from, but sadly in this reboot, the punch-up and shooting scenes lack any real weight to them and the car chases have too many cuts in the edits to be able to enjoy them properly. Mix in a settling of old scores and at least this film doesn’t even pretend to have a complex plot.
Ray Stevenson saves this from being a Christmas turkey, but even he still looks like he’s just there to pick up the cheque. The whole thing is more lightweight than a feather, and Skrein just doesn’t have Jason Statham’s presence (who bailed on this fourth entry after they wouldn’t pay him $11m). Every path it treads has been done before, and often so much better. There’s nothing going on here that it does which sets it apart from anything else. And Skrein gets his top off but none of the women do – why??
Oh, and when the owner of the Full Moon club looks out from his office to the dancefloor, how come the window sign says ‘Moon’ from his side when it would be the otherway round in order for the customers to see the words the right way round. When we see a bigger establishing shot of his office in full – the third time we see it – it’s facing the way you’d expect.
Will this start a new Transporter trilogy? I very much doubt it.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high definition and looks as pin-sharp as you’d expect as Frank Martin globetrots without a care in the world.
The sound is in DTS HD 5.1 and as it’s an action film, there’s a lot of vroom vroom sounds but in general, the whole aural soundscape doesn’t stick out like you’d expect.
The extras are as follows, but there’s not a huge amount to shout about:
- Rocketing from 0-60 (5:40): The cast and crew talk about the action scenes. A shame they couldn’t get any more than a series of bog-standard pop video shots. This extra mixes lots of soundbites from the cast and crew mixed in with clips from the film, something that sets the tone for all the others that follow.
- Frank Martin: The Reluctant Hero (9:18): This one highlights the pretence that the character doesn’t really enjoy getting in a fight and saving the girl. Or girls.
- The Couer Brise: Les Femmes of Refuelled (5:33): Centering on the four women in the movie.
- Theatrical Trailer (1:58): In the theatrical 2.35:1 ratio.
- Photo gallery (1:05): 13 shots from the set of the film. Unlucky for all concerned.
The menu mixes clips from the film with a piece of its music. Subtitles are in English, but sadly, when it comes to chapters, there’s just 12 over the 96-minute running time.
The Transporter Refuelled released on Monday December 28th on Blu-ray and DVD, and click on the packshot for the full-sized version. You can also buy a Blu-ray Boxset of the original Transporter trilogy.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
2 10 8 2 |
| OVERALL | 5.5 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 96 minutes
Studio: Icon Entertainment
Cat.no.: ICON70279R0
Year: 2015
Released: December 28th 2015
Chapters: 12
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (ARRIRAW (2.8K))
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Camille Delamarre
Producers: Luc Besson and Mark Gao
Screenplay: Adam Cooper, Bill Collage and Luc Besson
Music: Alexandre Azaria
Cast:
Frank Martin: Ed Skrein
Frank Senior: Ray Stevenson
Anna: Loan Chabanol
Gina: Gabriella Wright
Maria: Tatiana Pajkovic
Qiao: Wenxia Yu
Arkady Karasov: Radivoje Bukvic
Maïssa: Noémie Lenoir
Yuri: Yuri Kolokolnikov
Leo Imasova: Lenn Kudrjawizki
Inspector Bectaoui: Samir Guesmi
Stanislas Turgin: Anatole Taubman
Co-pilot Air Yuri: Robbie Nock
Captain Guesdon: Michael Morris
Ivan: Nash Novcic
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.