FILM: The Transporter Refueled
CAST: Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson, Loan Chabanol, Noemie Lenoir, Gabriella Wright, Tatjana Pajkovic, Wenxia Yu, Radivoje Bukvic, Lenn Kudrjawizki
DIRECTION: Camille Delamarre

Laced with revenge, romance and father-son bonding, The Transporter Refueled is a sleekly presented gangster film. The fourth from The Transporter franchise, released seven years after its last instalment.
Set in the French Riveira, the narration starts off with events of 1995 where the Russian Mafia takes over the underworld operations.
Fifteen years later, Frank (Ed Skrein), a clandestine courier operator reunites with his father Frank Sr (Ray Stevenson), an ex-sales representative who was also a secret government spy agent.
And while Frank continues transporting stuff around, he gets a call from the gorgeous Anna (Loan Chabanol), who hires him to help her crew of three similarly beautiful, blonde-wigged accomplices; Gina (Gabriella Wright), Maria (Tatiana Pajkovic) and Qiao (Wenxia Yu) to transport some consignment from a bank.
Little does he realise that he is being conned and coerced into their bigger scheme of things which include them seeking revenge on Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic), the Russian human trafficker who had forced them into prostitution.
Inadvertently, Frank Sr too gets involved in their ploy.
While this seems like a simple straight narration, the writers Bill Collage, Adam Cooper and Luc Besson, take a convoluted path. The wafer-thin plot-line, is made complex with scattershot logic and reckless action sequences, to keep the story moving.
Also, there is inconsistency in terms of characterisation and tone of the narration. The ladies shuttle from being strong, cold and calculating assassins to helpless seductresses randomly.
On the performance front, Ed Skrein with a stubble and a well-chiselled physique, as Frank Jr in this edition, does not match his predecessor, Jason Statham’s charisma. But nevertheless, he is machismo personified and makes his presence felt with ample action sequences and limited dialogues.
Ray Stevenson as Frank Sr, is dynamic, engaging and more entertaining than his son. Unfortunately, the writers seem to have messed this character so badly that his spy skills seriously leave something to be desired, as the plot hinges on him getting kidnapped not once but twice in the course of 24 hours.
The girls — Chabanol, Wright, Pajkovic and Wenxia Yu — are all there for the femme fatale quotient. And the rest of the cast are perfunctory.
With excellent production values, the visuals are stylised and the action and stunt sequences remarkable.
Overall, the film is a visually brilliant, action-packed, but out-of-gas entertainer. — IANS

Entertaining with messages galore

By Troy Ribeiro 


FILM: The Good Dinosaur
VOICED BY: Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Steve Zahn, Sam Elliott
DIRECTION: Peter Sohn

Emotionally charged, Disney-Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is a lively prehistoric toon film packed with lessons galore for its young audiences.
With the premise, “Sometimes you need to get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side”, this is the coming-of-age story of Arlo, the youngest of the three Apatosaurus dinosaur siblings.
Papa and mama dinosaurs along with their three children lead a content life by farming. While everything is hunky-dory, Arlo is the odd one in the lot. To overcome his anxiety, the clumsy and fearful Arlo is told by his dad: “Earn your mark by doing something big.”
Arlo is given the responsibility of protecting the home-grown corn, which he sincerely tries to do. But then following a freak accident, a tragedy occurs where he loses his father.
Then a subsequent encounter with a critter who keeps raiding the family’s food stock leads both Arlo and the critter to be swept downriver away from home.
They get lost in the wilderness and over a period of time they bond with each other and have an adventurous journey back home.
While Arlo speaks, his companion the “critter” in fact is a small human cave boy called Spot, who only makes some incomprehensible sounds. Together, they make an excellent odd pair that provides enough entertainment to keep you hooked.
Visually, with a colourful palette and a vast array of landscapes, the setting is almost real and eye catching. It seems as if the animated characters are being drawn on actual locations.
Though the animals in the universe are cartoonish, they resonate with the right blend of emotions, making them apt for a compelling viewing.
The script written by Meg LeFauve, is simple, lively and enthusiastically layered to enthral its viewers.
The voices lent by the ace cast are energetic and engaging and the background score elevates the viewing experience.
This film, replete with messages, is bound to appeal to parents and young viewers. —  IANS

Visions on video

FILM: Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
CAST: Chris J Murray, Brit Shaw, Ivy George, Dan Gill, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Hallie Foote, Cara Pifko
DIRECTION:  Gregory Plotkin

The film, said to be the final instalment of the series which began in 2009, centres around a married couple, Ryan (Chris J Murray) and Emily (Brit Shaw), their child Leila (Ivy George), and two guests, Ryan’s brother Mike (Dan Gill) and Emily’s friend Skyler (Taylor Dudley), in their new home in Santa Rosa, California, filming every moment of their lives for reasons barely explained. 
In this house, Ryan and Mike find a box of videotapes and a still-functioning old video camera that, when used, reveals that it can see and capture strange visions around the house that can’t be seen with the naked eye, or any other recording device. 
The old tapes reveal cult rituals involving the two young girls from the prior films, Kristi and Katie, and this look into the past begins to manifest itself with strange occurrences in the present, especially tied in with Leila, who begins to sleepwalk and talks to an invisible entity named “Toby”. 
 With his new-fangled camera and a few other devices, Ryan sets about trying to capture just what’s going on, and hopes he can turn away whatever malevolence is affecting his daughter before it’s too late.
The Ghost Dimension is the fifth of the official Paranormal Activity series, not counting The Marked Ones, which the producers claim is a spin-off, even though it ties in directly with the structure of the rest of the films. — VL

DVDs courtesy:  Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha