Review of The Mechanic (2011) by Stuart W — 23 Jun 2011

Well done to Jason Statham. He's done well for himself since the days of Lock, Stock and Two smoking Barrels. he has carved out a niche as the action hero of the 21st Century. When most action movies end up as DTV bottom shelf fillers, his constantly get released. Some are loads of fun (see Crank). Some aren't so. With The Mechanic, the latter falls into place.

Arthur Bishop is an expert Mechanic, a fixer (or hired assassin if you would). He is the best at what he does, making the death of the victims either seem accidental or as if someone else had committed the crime. His long-standing relationship with Harry McKenna, a wheelchair-bound operative of the company who hire Arthur, makes the next job even harder. Arthur has been hired to kill his friend. The job done, Arthur feels the whole thing doesn't sit right and so takes Harry's son, Steve, under his wing. Training him to be a 'mechanic', Arthur soon realises that the death of Harry wasn't what he was told and that it was all a set-up.

A remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson film of the same name, this is a by-the-book, all action, ultra-violent thriller that lacks one or two important things. a decent story and characters we can care about. usually Statham, for all his faults, comes a cross as a likeable 'gezza' with a twinkle in his eye. Here, however, he is cold and calculating and even when he is forced to kill his friend, it is done without any real emotion, as you would if faced with that position. It came across far too easy.

Ben Foster gets the more complex character of the two, having to control his anger for the death of his father while being apprentice to the wiser and more in control Statham and yet it still isn't enough to make the film interesting. Donald Sutherland is wasted in a part that, to be honest, anyone could have played, and Tony Goldwyn gets to tick another sleazy businessman role off his list.

Director Simon West, who gave us one of the more enjoyable action films of recent years, Con-Air, tries his hardest to make things look interesting with his MTV style cinematography and flashy editing but it cannot disguise that this is just another empty-headed action movies that doesn't add anything to the genre.

The deaths scenes aren't even original enough to keep the thoughts wandering elsewhere and so you end up with 90 minutes of shooting, explosions and blood but nothing more than that. This could quite have easily been just another DTV film that maybe one or two fans of Statham would have picked up if they haven't anything better to do. As a major release? Nope, left me feeling cold.