The Mechanic
This is the latest action romp that features
Jason Statham (who shot to action stardom with "The Transporter" and
"Crank"; prior to last summer's "The Expendables"). It should be noted that
this is a "remake" of an early 70's film of the same title starring Charles
Bronson. I like a lot of old Bronson stuff; but cannot recall seeing this
one. I read the movie's description on Wikipedia; and it sounds as if the
two films only loosely resemble each other....with some changes that
are major and some that sound more subtle.
I'm going to review this new movie on it's own,
as a stand-alone film and not compare with the original; now closing in on
40 years old. What I'll relate it to is more of today's current crop of
"action-istas".
Still I must add that I'm intrigued enough to
want to eventually track down the original for a viewing. That's a topic
for another day.
Now...back to the current film. In this movie
Mr Statham plays a similar lone-wolf role to that of "The Transporter"; but
this movie goes in a different direction with a less stunning soundtrack and
probably more gritty, realistic action scenes than the fabulously fun &
original Transporter film (before those so-so sequels).
Statham plays a hitman, a clean-up type of guy.
Best description of his work is this: he does jobs that are not
necessarily seen as "hits"; he's the old-pro who can pull off the jobs where
no-one even knows it's murder. Or better yet, it gets pinned on someone
else.
In this movie; it is difficult to give much more
plot description without feeling like I'm entering spoiler-territory, but
here goes. He plays "Arthur"...one of the best bad-ass*s in the world.
There's some cool scenes that establish this. The plot also features some
deception & questions the idea of "honor among thieves". On top of all that
there's a young "apprentice mechanic" who he's trying to bring along into
the business. There eventual tension between the mentor and the
trainee....and we get to see who really will end up top dog.
All in all it was fun, seemed fast-paced enough
to avoid any feeling of "drag", and features some neat action scenes. While
these scenes are intricate, they manage to avoid that "over-the-top"
impossibility that some action movies fall into.
Worth seeing at the theater, a nice break from
the constant barrage of 3D, and definitely a must for Statham fans---he's at
top of his game here.
3 good things about this flick:
*perfect length for me: about 90 minutes
*overall pretty good acting from the two male
leads
*nice role from Classic Canadian Donald
Sutherland
3 bad things about this movie
*an unecessary female role that matters so
little you wonder why she's there
*the entire chihuaha dog angle could've been
left out with the girl mentioned above
*the bad guy is acceptable as the bad-guy, but
not great as the bad guy
4 out of five cookies.
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