David O'ConnellThe Mechanic
March 24th 2011 03:22
You can rely on Jason Statham to provide certain attributes: here’s an actor who’s on-screen persona undergoes very little development from one role to the next. From The Transporter to Crank to The Bank Job and everything in between, Statham seems beholden to the same gestures, the same speech patterns, the same no-nonsense approach to problem solving; even the look he saves for visual appreciation of the female form takes on a familiar, well-honed dimension.
With that in mind, you'll know exactly what you’re getting when you sign up for The Mechanic. A re-imagining of Michael Winner’s 1972 film it may be, but the connection between the films is tenuous at best. This updating offers the same name only and is directed by a hired gun in Simon West, a man with as few stylistic idiosyncracies as the made-by-committee process of big-budget filmmaking allows. In other words, zero.
Statham’s Arthur Bishop is a hit man who completes his assignments with a minimum of fuss and maximum efficiency. After doing away with a drug lord, his next assignment floats down the pipe from on high. It won’t be a pleasant one, even for a killing machine as divorced from emotional responses as Bishop is. He’s to take out his long-time mentor Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland). When the job’s done however, Harry’s son Steve (Ben Foster) enters the fray, overflowing with a poisonous misplaced apathy that will get him into hot water unless the guilt-inflected consciousness of Bishop can be disturbed into action.
Foster is an intense actor in even his mildest, most benign roles. Maybe one day he’ll actually score a romantic comedy role where he gets to grin like a fool whilst bequeathing bouquets of roses upon the doorsteps of pretty girls. For now though, he’s been condemned to a serious man’s prison, channelling dark emotions through an irrational physicality impelled by a general loathing for the world that removed a father he wasn’t exactly close to.
It’s a classic set-up: the boy spurned for an outsider by his neglectful parent gets a chance to redeem himself by going toe to toe with the man who should logically be regarded as his own nemesis. Instead Arthur becomes his reluctant mentor - his guide through the ins and outs of contract killing.
The Mechanic (2011) offers genuine gratuitous glee that will keep you mildly entertained for its brisk running time. It’s a boy’s own adventure if ever there was one – and extremely violent at that. There are fight scenes and gun battles aplenty, many of which are spectacular, even if they feel like slickly choreographed manoeuvres more than naturalistic movements. The real disappointment is the paucity of real blood – or ‘real’ fake blood, to be accurate. Too many victims are despatched with a spray of supplementary gore that has obviously been added in via the post-production process.
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I like the poster.
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by MelG
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by MelG
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
I don't think he's miscast at all. He looks smaller than what he is only because the film's best set-piece has him going toe-to-toe with a guy who's 6 feet 7 inches tall!
The CGI blood is very noticeable in the violent third act.
This is well worth seeing for mindless entertainment, but just don't expect to see much in the way of actual females on screen (probably about 2 minutes out of 90!)
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Reading your review it seems they have taken out everything about the source that attracted me.
Doubt I will be checking this out even though I too am a fan of Foster.
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic