Movie Review: The Mechanic

Very unusual for me to be reviewing something still in the theaters, I know, but I went with my girlfriend to see this movie after she expressed a desire to. I went not because I had any particular notion to watch it, but because she wanted to, and I want to make her happy.

This movie is ok. It isn't anything special, and there's not a whole lot to be said about it. The Mechanic is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name starring the legendary Charles Bronson. Jason Statham plays an assassin who goes by the name of Arthur Bishop, and after killing his one friend in the world, he trains the friend's failure of a son to be a hit man like himself in an attempt to try and justify his actions, as well as to help him fix his own inner loneliness. Donald Sutherland plays the dead friend, and Ben Foster plays the gun for hire in training.

Frankly, as far as shoot 'em up plots go, I was impressed. We get to see a fairly engaging story, which I was not expecting. True, it could have been done better, but it wasn't done that badly. Jason Statham continues his trend of playing Jason Statham. Not impressive, but not unexpected, and he fits the hole his particular peg has been assigned to quite well. Ben Foster provides the best performance in this picture, really selling himself as the sort of pitiful but not hopeless inured puppy person he is playing. Donald Sutherland is wonderful as usual.

The music for this film is memorable not for the quality, but for how shoved into your face it is. There's a piano theme used at least 3 times that is supposed to be what you come away with when you think of the film's music, and there's a quasi-James Bond action theme they use at least twice, that fails as many times.

Now for what you actually came for, the action. Is it good? Yes. Is it great? Once or twice. There are a few knock down drag out fights that impressed me, both with their choreography and their ruthlessness. Obvious fight directions are ignored and unusual but not unlikely choices are made in combat scenes. It is refreshing as hell to not see the same fight in 40 successive films, and The Mechanic really does deliver some satisfying combat scenes. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Overall, not as bad as I was expecting. The fights were entertaining, and even got me to wince once or twice, not an easy feat I assure you. Though the R rating level content in some places was absolutely unnecessary. The nudity is in there for no purpose, and comes from characters that are picked up, never developed, and thrown away before the credits. Furthermore, there was a homophobic undertone to a section of the movie that could have been lost and no story element would have been affected. I understand its a machismo fueled film, but it is 2011 people. Still, despite its issues, it wasn't terrible. If you're the kind of person that likes Jason Statham movies, you'll probably like this one. What more can I say? 3 stars, out of 5.

*** out of *****