Frank Martin, the man with the stylish driving Audi, returns for another fast paced, martial arts adventure, in “The Transporter Refueled”. Martin (Ed Skerin) is a former special ops mercenary, living a less quiet life, or so he thinks. When Frank’s father (Ray Stevenson) pays him a visit in south France, their father-son bonding weekend takes a turn for the worse. Frank is recruited by a cunning femme-fatale, Anna (Loan Chabanol), and her three seductive sidekicks to orchestrate the bank heist of the century. Frank must use his covert expertise and knowledge of fast cars and fast driving to outrun a rich Russian kingpin, and save his father from the edge of death. “The Transporter Refueled” comes off as an unncessary entry into the franchise, and that’s mostly based on a lack of intrigue based on the same things we have been seeing for four films now, and the lack of charasmatic character from the film’s main protagonist, which was played much better by Jason Statham in the first three films. That’s not to say that this film doesn’t have it’s shining moments. The action sequences look rich in destruction, as well as stylishly edited with wide to close angle transitions when the scene shifts back to our main characters. The fight choreography is also well received and documented. Thankfully, this film doesn’t suffer from the same camera angles that “Hitman: Agent 47” suffered from. It’s immersive in action, as well as enriched in scene originality, which includes a boat raft being used as handcuffs, as well as an airport car chase that is by far the best part of the film. The problem with these things is that they are what we expect from this franchise. In “The Fast and Furious”, you would expect excellent car transitional scenes, but what makes the movie stand on it’s own originality? And that is what’s wrong here. Whenever the movie isn’t in the Audi, it’s dramatically weighed down by obscure backdrops that are at times hard to follow, and even laughable in character dialogue response. I wasn’t much behind Skerin. He has a nice on-screen presence, but he never commanded my attention. In fact, i had the most enjoyment out of watching Stevenson as a live fast retiree who has a taste for expensive things. Imagine Austin Powers father with a greater sense of concentration. The film is clear that this is definitely Statham’s character from the previous films, but it’s unclear as to whether this is a sequel or a prequel to those. I took it as a prequel, because Skerin is noticeably younger than Statham looked in his offerings. The film peters along for 91 minutes, and without it’s biggest sense of identity (Statham), it gives the film a feel of this being a sequel to the B-grade TV show and not one of the Hollywood blockbusters. It runs out of gas midway through the movie, during a time when the movie really needed a kick into the next gear to drive it home. “The Transporter Refueled” is a tank better left empty.

4/10