The Mechanic

The Mechanic

2011

Action

Rated: R

Running Time: 100 minutes

Starring: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland

Directed By: Simon West

Rating: 7 out of 10

Outline

An elite hitman sets out to find the killers of his mentor. Along with his mentor’s son they set their sights on finding the truth of the murder and who was behind it.

Review

It is a pleasure in this industry to have to review a Jason Statham movie every two weeks it seems. There is not a movie action role this guy will turn down. While most of his films in recent years tend to blend together and be very generic The Mechanic actually sets itself apart from his other cookie cutter films. The Mechanic is as simple a story as one gets nowadays and I actually enjoyed the limited depth of this plot. Arthur Bishop (Statham) is an elite hitman who wants to track down the men responsible for murdering his mentor. He pairs himself with his rough and tumble mentor’s son Steve Mckenna (Foster) who has similar goals in mind. No one is going to say Statham is not a viable action star so playing an elite hitman in this movie was no stretch for him and he was great in this role. Couple him with the solid Ben Foster and this movie had a winning recipe from the start. Master and apprentice take to each other in the ways of killing targets and that is as deep as this movie really gets. The two of them have chemistry on film and while they both get to do their own individual action sequences the film seems better when it is the two of them on screen killing people. Director Simon West with an action past history of Con Air and Tomb Raider shows his credentials are not wasted by treating the viewer with the perfect amount of action to dialogue. The story does lag in places and suffers from weak plot turns as one would expect but the bloody action sequences more than make up for the lack of cohesive story. Also it is a rare treat when these types of movies have no love interest involved. It is all about the action without any save the girl scenario muddying up the story. This movie seemed like a giant montage just gearing up for the ending. It goes like this. Here is how I kill someone. Here is how you kill someone. Here is how we both kill someone. I am going to have to give this movie a surprising recommendation. I was not expecting much but came away enjoying this film more than I thought I was going to. If Statham was more discerning in his roles he would be the cream of the crop in the action world instead of the hardest working.

T Factor + If you love Jason Statham as an action star then this could score higher on the rating scale.

T Factor – If you like intriguing story lines in your movies then this could score lower on the rating scale.

If you liked this film reel recommendations: Bourne Identity, The Way of the Gun.