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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Transporter 3 (2009)

Transporter 3 (2009)

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Released 9-Jun-2009

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Main Menu Audio & Animation
Audio Commentary-DirectorOlivier Megaton
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2009
Running Time 99:33
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (57:55) Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 2,4,5 Directed By Olivier Megaton
Studio
Distributor
Icon Entertainment Starring Jason Statham
Natalya Rudakova
François Berléand
Robert Knepper
Jeroen Krabbé
Alex Kobold
David Atrakchi
Yann Sundberg
Eriq Ebouaney
Case ?
RPI ? Music Alexandre Azaria


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English dts 5.1
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Dolby Digital 2.0
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English (Burned In)
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement Yes, Audi & Mercedes everywhere
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    

    Okay, check your brain at the door before entering, you will not need it here. Back in 2002 a film was released which didn't do overly well at the box office but developed quite a following on DVD. That film was The Transporter which was a fun and exciting action film with a good vein of humour running through it. To my mind, one of the things which made it stand out was its European origins being produced by Luc Besson and using great European locations. It concerned Frank Martin (Jason Statham), The Transporter of the title. His work involved delivering packages which needed to get somewhere fast and required special attention or lack of attention from the authorities. A sequel was made and proved to be a bigger global box office taker than the original. This third film trumped the second one in that department although more than 50% of the revenue earned was outside the US. All three did reasonably well at the box office without being huge hits. I would guess though that they all would have turned a profit.

    Transporter 3 follows pretty closely the approach set by the first two although this time with a different director Olivier Megaton who perhaps lacks some of the style of his predecessor, Louis Leterrier. Megaton's main previous claim to fame is directing a pretty average French thriller which I previously reviewed, La Sirene Rouge and being the second unit director on Hitman. Luc Besson is still heavily involved with this third instalment being partially responsible for the writing and being the producer. He also seems to have 'discovered' the female lead, Natalya Rudakova.

    The story here is pretty clichéd but you should have expected that. After an associate of his fails at a job which Frank recommended him for, Frank is forced to take over and deliver the package. The boot of his car is filled with large bags and the front (and sometimes back) seat is filled with a leggy but lippy Ukrainian woman, Valentina (Rudakova). He is not really told where he is going or why the girl is there, however, he knows he must follow instructions due to the unique encouragement device which has been attached to his wrist. The device will explode, killing him instantly, if he ventures more than a short distance from his Audi S8. As he drives across Europe new destinations are given to him. At the same time, a Ukrainian government official Leonid Tomilenko (Jeroen Krabbe) is under pressure to sign off on a foreign company dumping toxic waste in the Ukraine. Obviously, these two are linked and pretty soon Frank and the girl are speeding across Europe with everyone after them.

    There is a lot of fun to be had with this film if you don't try to work out how every stunt is physically possible or try to think too hard about the story. There are some great chase scenes and fight scenes (although the fights are not as well shot as in the previous films). Unfortunately, when the pace slackens the dialogue is atrocious but this can be ignored due to the great action sequences. If you like the first two you will enjoy this one but it won't bring new fans to the series. Statham is certainly the best thing about this film as many will find the female lead a bit trying as she is hardly a great actress. However, her role here is to look pretty and get Frank into trouble which she succeeds at. It was also nice to see the character of Tarconi (Francois Berleand), the French policeman return as he is a character that adds depth to this series of films.

    This is big dumb noisy fun if you accept it for what it is.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality is excellent, the best SD transfer I have seen for some time.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was very sharp and clear throughout. It looks great upscaled to 1080p, which tends to highlight the weaknesses of lesser transfers. Shadow detail is also excellent.

    The colour was excellent as well. The French countryside (standing in for the rest of Europe) looks great!.

    There were no obvious artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. They were clear and easy to read. There are also burned in subtitles for dialogue in French. They do not impact on each other.

    There is a layer change at 57:55. It is fairly obvious.

   
    

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is also excellent with a very aggressive DTS mix topping the bill of options.

    This DVD contains four audio options (including a commentary), an English DTS 5.1 soundtrack, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack and the director's commentary. Unfortunately, I cannot get this test disc accepted by my DVD-ROM drive so I cannot confirm the bit rates of the different soundtracks. The DTS track is fantastic with lots of surround usage and heaps of LFE. The Dolby 5.1 is also very good.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout except for some difficult accents.

    The music is a combination of modern hip hop and a modern electronic style score by Alexandre Azaria. It certainly sounds good on the DTS track. A classic Stooges song is throw in for good measure.

    The surround speakers were in constant use for lots of surround effects during fight scenes, car chases, explosions and more.

    The subwoofer was also pretty much in constant use for explosions, thumping, music, ships, cars, trucks and punches. Great stuff.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

   

Menu

    The menu features music and motion.

Commentary - Director Olivier Megaton

    His speaking voice is heavily accented but once you get used to that he has some fairly interesting information to relay about the film, its development, shooting, budget & casting. It is not overly scene specific but will be interesting to fans of action films.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 version is a two disc version where the second disc includes a digital copy of the film. On disc 1 are some more extras including a featurette on real transporters and some brief making of featurettes. However, the Region 1 version does not have the DTS track which make Region 4 the winner in my view.

Summary

    Big and dumb but lots of fun.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    Just a director's commentary in the extras department.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Review Equipment
DVDSony DVP-NS708H upscaling to 1080p, using HDMI output
DisplayLG Scarlet 42LG61YD 106cm Full HD LCD. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersMonitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer

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