Luc Besson, the French director behind some truly great films such as The Professional and La Femme Nikita, has lately built himself a little empire of mediocre action franchises. The crown jewel of those would be Taken, but before that there was the series that turned Jason Statham into a star, The Transporter. In the six years since The Transporter 3 (which was terrible) we've seen a television series debut, but the big money is in feature films, and that means we're getting a reboot with The Transporter Refueled! Wait, have we been teleported back to a time when words like "Reloaded" were tacked on to tiles for maximum "cool factor"?
Since Jason Statham has grown beyond playing suave, ass-kicking transporter Frank Martin, the role has gone to Ed Skrein, who you may know as Daario Naharis on the third season of HBO's Game of Thrones. Or perhaps you have no clue who he is, but keep an eye out for him in next year's Deadpool film. Anyway, The Transporter Refueled (man that title blows) takes us back to Frank Martin's early days, and even back then he had that pesky code of ethics which always leads to fights with guys in parking garages. Apparently his latest job puts him in the crosshairs of some Russian mobsters, but it's impossible to tell what's going on from this trailer beyond hot broads, skidding wheels, and bad accents. You can tell Besson and his writing partner Robert Mark Kamen came up with this because you've got the foreign mobster calling all Americans "John Wayne types". Ray Stevenson co-stars so maybe we'll get a Transporter vs. The Punisher matchup at some point? Eh, probably not.
Besson has tasked one of his many proteges, Camille Delamarre, to direct The Transporter Refueled for release on June 19th.
