Review of The Transporter Refueled (2015) by Healingtoolbox1 — 19 Mar 2016

Hi I think the professional reviews here are misleading and not telling truth as we know it. A "good movie" these days, especially an action movie for an international market is one that makes money. Period. Full stop.

So all we can really do is evaluate this one in terms of competence. Is it over all competent enuf to make money? I can't find the budget. It made $72 million; I'm guessing it made money. This means the script, producer and director are competent. Ed Skrein is more than adequate as are the rest of the actors and stuntmen, always a plus in Luc Besson films.

What stands out as not competent is the stunt choreography. Transporter 1, 2 especially are famous for their elaborately conceived and rehearsed fight scenes, some of the best ever done. The blocking-rehearsals for the fight scenes in the first Transporter used to be on Youtube and may be on the DVD. Very creative, everyone totally dedicated and camera moves worked out with much thought.

Here, the land fights especially are the weakest part of the whole effort. You can see the actors giving it their all; you can see the many good and original stunt ideas someone came up with, usually a group effort, but little attention is paid to camera moves. So there is no "ballet" at all. Nor is there quite the focus and intensity of Fury Road fight scenes.

Add to this there is no character develpment by design in this franchise and the overall effect, here in the US is of a movie made in the 1990s. Given all this we can understand why a mostly very competent film received such low scores here in the USA.