Mechanic: Resurrection 
                                    
Director: Dennis Gansel
Year: 2016
Rating: 6.0
I went to see Jessica Alba’s stomach today – I mean the new Mechanic film – Mechanic: Resurrection – at my local theater – but mainly I was interested in Alba’s resurrection – two children and not a mark on that stomach – a Hollywood miracle. It also stars Jason Statham who kills a lot of people in order to save Jessica from death – a worthwhile proposition in my book. Statham has actually been one of my favorite tough guys over the last decade – those British impossible to understand what they are saying films – Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Revolver – the Transporter franchise and a bunch of other action films most of which I have liked for what they are – totally senseless carnage filled comic books – but some pretty bad. I even watched Crank: High Voltage the other day and it was perhaps punishment for all my sins in the world – it was as if the director was doing his best Tarantino imitation if Tarantino had a brain seizure while on LSD when he was a fifteen year old smartass. With all of our action stars getting up there in age, Statham still delivers the necessary kill ratio – dead people to dialogue. Before I forget the film has Michelle Yeoh in it! Being a Hong Kong fanboy this was an unexpected pleasure though she kicks absolutely zero ass. What a shame.



The Mechanic films go way back. The first one was in 1972 starring Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent just as Vincent was becoming a big star before he crashed out due to drugs and alcohol. Mechanics mind you are not guys who charge you too much for car repairs, but are guys who take contracts to kill someone. Good hours. Good pay. And Bronson as Arthur Bishop has a good life – cool digs, great stereo that he only plays classical music on, a working girl who makes herself available when he wants. He kills for a criminal enterprise but when he takes on Jan-Michael as an apprentice things go to hell. It is a really good gritty understated action film that has gained in reputation over the years. It was directed by Michael Winner who later directed Bronson in Death Wish and according to the Cannon documentary I saw yesterday, one of the nastiest most sadistic guys in the business.



So it took Hollywood a long time to get around to a remake – The Mechanic starring Statham in 2011 and other than ramping up the violence it is surprisingly faithful to the original – with one huge exception that must remain unsaid. I guess the film did well enough to make a sequel and it truly is quite silly – but hey it is a Jason Statham film. Alba gets kidnapped and will be killed unless Bishop performs three assassinations all to look like accidents (oddly similar to Statham's Killer Elite film). The first scene is in Rio where Bishop leaps from the cable car to Sugarloaf on to a passing glider – then the beaches of Thailand – Bangkok, Sydney and Bulgaria – so some sights to see. Mayhem and murder by the boatload follows. Unscathed thankfully is Alba’s stomach. A national treasure.