The third instalment of this Luc Beeson penned, Jason Statham starring action franchise, is a tone flat, European based action movie, filled with stock American villains.

Evoking the zeitgeist of environmental protection and globalization, Transporter 3 begins with an Ukrainian government official, blackmailed by an American corporation, who threaten to kill his daughter Valentina (Russian model, Natalya Rudakova), if he does not clear ships containing hazardous materials to port in the Ukraine.

Overseeing the operation is trigger happy American, Johnson (Robert Knepper), a curious creation who blows holes in the heads of his minions who talk out of line, and then claims to be a pacifist by heart.

Johnson “convinces” Statham’s Transporter, Frank Martin, to drive the annoyingly temperamental Valentina across Europe, with an explosive device attached to his person set to go boom if he has a change of heart. Cue an hour of impressively executed, yet cliché action sequences, usually featuring a shirtless Statham ploughing through a dozen men, while Rudakova looks on with bedroom eyes.

Explosions are big, but unfortunately not loud enough to block out the insipid dialogue between the two. Regardless, the scenes shared between them are barely audible, with Statham’s hard British granite not meshing well with Rudakova’s wonky Ukraine/English. The love story developed feels forced, and fails to place an emotional edge on the proceedings.

To be fair, some scenes do work: a BMX bike/car chase is a highlight; ditto a fight scene between Statham and a mammoth of a man, yet the same was done better in Jet Li’s Kiss of the Dragon (also written by Beeson), and the Thomas Jane starring Punisher.

The rest of Transporter 3 is marred by Olivier Megaton’s gimmicky direction, with this supposed adrenaline fuelled action movie barely raising a pulse.