Movie Review - The Mechanic

A remake of the Charles Bronson film, The Mechanic stars Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Donald Sutherland in a movie that has plenty of action, some gore and plenty of a stern-faced Jason Statham. If I have you sold, (and most ladies will be, since he's shirtless for a good 3 seconds) then my job is done, if you're not sure, read on, I'm sure you will figure it out.

The Mechanic involves Statham's Bishop as a high end assassin, filling jobs. When one gets personal, Bishop's conscious starts bothering him until he takes on a reckless apprentice in Foster's Steve. Now the two have all kinds of problems on their hands with betrayals and plenty of dead bodies.

First off, if you were thinking it looks like another of Statham's movies, The Transporter, let me assure you that is way off; there is no driving at all in this movie. There also isn't any truly amazing fight scenes either. So, since the movies are so different, you won't recognize Statham looking stern throughout the whole movie. The action scenes were very similarly shot, with alternating shaky cams with tripod shots in a confusing sequence. While the movie was a bit darker than Transporter, and offered less of the humor, the similarities were there.

While I like Statham, the script gave him zero range, and less of a character. Bishop is methodical, quiet, and very boring. While this doesn't change, the movie does add Steve, and the audience is very grateful. Foster is a great actor and he shows his chops here, amid the bullets, the bad guys and the blood. Foster is a great opposite of Statham, he's very emotional, has plenty of rage, and he's sloppy. While the two should conflict, you never get that sense, mostly due to the script.

There were some good parts of the movie. The action scenes weren't bad, especially with Foster's gun play. There were a few really brutal scenes were a ton of guys get killed, and it was quite well done. There's even a scene that makes Statham look all kinds of dark. There are glimpses of Bishop getting into fights, and not using guns, but they are all very quick, and don't have the scope of other movies.

Overall, it wasn't a bad movie, just something that's been done before...three times in fact, in the Transporter movies. So, if you like those, you will enjoy yourself with The Mechanic. If you are like me, and thought those movies grew tired, then you may want to reconsider seeing this film.