Jason Statham has stepped away but the Transporter drives on in the form of Ed Skrein. The young Londoner plays control-freak ex-soldier Frank Martin, who drives dubious cargo for a living with no questions asked. This time round, his passenger is Anna (Loan Chabanol) and her gang of trafficked prostitutes, out to destroy their gangster pimp. These women are the criminal masterminds, outsourcing the fisticuffs to a frequently befuddled Frank, which, happily, he handles convincingly.
The big revelation here is that our hero was not hewn from the living rock as we had always assumed, but has a human father in the shape of Ray Stevenson’s larger-than-life Frank Senior. Their relationship gives a fun ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ tinge to proceedings, and offers an alternative potential hostage to the traditional screaming girl. But the film squanders much of its freshness with clunky dialogue and action scenes that too often fall flat. In this ‘Fast & Furious’ world, we need more than a car driving through an airport to amaze us, or a finale that splutters out in cramped fashion. If the Transporter does return for a fifth outing, he should demand a bigger budget and at least one more draft of the script.