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.

The thing about the Transporter movies is that you know exactly what your going to get the moment you step into the movie. There is no feigning or trying to hide what the movies are, they are action packed somewhat ridiculous adrenaline rides. Its like going to an amusement park and getting on the roller coaster you know what your going to get and there are very few surprises. But in the end that is what works for the Transporter movies much like a lot of the action films of the 1980's you just want to unplug and watch some slightly ridiculous but highly entertaining action. The film goes over the top but in a good way and it ends exactly how you would expect to it, the good guy beats the bad guy saves the day and gets the girl, nothing wrong with that.

For quite sometime it seemed they were always looking for the next big action star to take over for Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger after both aged a little too much to continue to provide that quick burst of action in movies. For some reason they never really looked at Jason Statham who continues to turn out highly enjoyable action movies one after another. But that just shows you can't force it like they tried to with actors like Vin Diesel it has to be natural and organic like who would have ever expected Matt Damon to become a big action star or for that matter stars like Bruce Willis who had only done comedies before Die hard. Jason Statham on the other hand toils in more obscurity while the others take the high road trying to make more serious dramas and movies, Statham just turns out another good action film.

As far as the story goes in Transporter 3 there is not a lot to know and you really don't have to see the first two to pick up with where the third one begins. Sure it helps as you are familiar with the characters and understand the back story as Statham isn't really a transporter anymore but more of a forced hero. What makes the movies so good and what makes you not really have to worry about the story that much is how cool the character Frank Martin is. This is what the movie is about much like the big name action movies of the 1980’s its about the cool character. The film does make quite a few references to the first two films from Frank's rules, to the character Inspector Tarconi played by Francois Berleand. But that doesn't take away from the film and shouldn't leave anyone new to the series in the dark. All you really need to know is things are going to go fast, things are going to blow up and someone is going to get into a fist fight.

I really liked Natalya Rudakova who plays the female lead in the movie. She is not your typical Hollywood beauty rather she is red headed and freckled and imperfect which actually is what ends up making her hot. Too often they feel they need some bleach blond bimbo to carry the movie. I am glad they went the opposite direction in this film which is something I think they learned from the Bourne movies as that also had a pretty but imperfect female lead as well. Jason Statham feels like and old hand in his third turn as Frank Martin and he is probably still the perfect actor for the role. I enjoyed Transporter 3 probably more than the second one but not as much as the first one. The film is a fun and silly adrenaline ride that satisfies in just the right way.

Grade: B