The Mechanic Film Review

Director: Simon West
Year: 2011
Rating: 6.0

I am continuing my weekend of brainless action films from this century. Have realized that though I saw most of these within the past 20-years, there isn't much about them that I recall. Almost brand new. How much of that is my fading memory or just the sameness of all these films, I can't say. They all go down easy, but I am hungry for more 30-minutes later. All calories with no protein.

This is a remake of the 1972 film of the same title. That one starred Charles Bronson and Jean-Michael Vincent and has become something of a classic within the hitman genre. It had it all in there - a cool hitman, clever kills and betrayals. This is pretty much the same though it stars Jason Statham and Ben Foster. Points to the original in terms of star power. Statham has become a favorite of mine, but he is no Bronson. Foster and Vincent are a draw for me. I find them both annoying. Not the roles but the actors. Statham is Arthur Bishop, a professional killer who was mentored by Harry (played by Donald Sutherland - RIP). Harry is in a wheelchair now but still gives Bishop his assignments. The first is a drug lord in his heavily protected mansion. Oops - they forgot to make the bottom of the pool secure. Bishop tells us that his kills can be categorized into three buckets - ones that are made to look like an accident, those that look natural and those where you want to send a message. The drug lord fell into the middle category. He was like a ghost.

Bishop lives in a home deep into the bayou only approachable by boat. He has a great collection of vinyl and a beautiful prostitute on call at her place. Life is good for Bishop. Good pay, good hours. Then the inevitable happens in that business. The call you dread. His next target is Harry. It comes from the big Boss (Tony Goldwyn) who explains that Harry betrayed them and got six men in the organization killed. You have 48-hours Bishop. As a killer you have three choices - do the job, go on the run or kill the Boss. Bishop chooses the first. Harry takes it stoically. Bishop comes across Harry's son Steve (Foster) who was always a disappointment to his father - a loser with a chip - but Bishop takes him on as an apprentice in the hit man profession and he learns quickly. Still, it seems to me to be a bad idea to train the son of the man you killed. Most of the action is left for the final 30-minutes but it is a good payoff for being patient. There was a big difference from the first one which I can't say except that it says a lot in terms of the way the movie business and audience taste has changed for the worse.