The movie opens with Karasov, a drug king-pin taking over the street corners with his own teenage “girls.” Anna, one of the “girls” is obviously distraught over the life she has chosen. Fast forward over a decade and Anna is all grown up and plotting a financial revenge of her own. In order to accomplish this, she hires The Transporter. In The Transporter - Refueled, Frank Martin is now played by Ed Skrein. Martin is planning on spending time with his recently-retired dad Frank senior, played by Ray Stevenson. When the job calls, however, he responds. Little does Frank know that Anna and her crew of lovely ladies plan to kidnap senior in order to pull off the ultimate coup/revenge against Karasov (Radivoje Buvic).

If you’re a fan of the Transporter series, you will definitely notice the difference between Statham’s portrayal of Frank Martin vs. the role as played by Ed Skrein. It’s not to say that Skrein necessarily did a bad job. For example, even though Skrein is British and it’s a delight to hear him talk, it sounded like he tried too hard to adapt the same articulation as Statham. Perhaps it was the director’s way of making the transition from Statham to Skrein appear seamless to the audience. Additionally, Skrein is quite athletic, however, Statham is a fighter and the difference was obvious. Finally, several scenes where definitely “reloaded” from prior movies including the “thugs trying to steal the car scene.”

One of the other issues that parents may have with the film, is the PG-13 rating. I’m not sure how a movie that contains prostitutes, a love-making scene, scantly clad women, or violence can be given a PG-13 rating. I supposed that kids are subject to this material at an earlier age, but I’m not sure if the cut-off should be as low as the age of 13.

Overall, while it may seem like I didn’t like the movie, I am a die-hard Transporter fan and once I was able to get past some of the small issues, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. It’s always a treat to watch the major character evolve and the twists and turns (including the ending), made it definitely a film to watch.

I give this movie a 3 out of 5 stars and can’t wait to see the next installment.

Details:

Rated: PG – 13

Director: Camille Dalameme

Run time: 96 minutes

I paid for this movie with my own funds. I have not been compensated for the review of this film.