Jason Statham is one of my favorite actors in all of Hollywood. As I have mentioned before, I am a big action film fan and Statham is one of the best action stars on the planet. He almost always tends to make entertaining, high adrenaline, fun movies. Sure, most of his films are pretty simple in terms of plot and he tends to play similar characters, but they always tend to be good action flicks. The Mechanic continues Statham's consistent track record of quality action films.
The Mechanic is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name which starred Charles Bronson (who Statham is frequently compared to.) Statham plays Arthur Bishop, a contract killer that specializes in the art of killing people without the target even knowing he is there. Bishop is eventually given a contract by his boss, Dean(Tony Goldwyn), to kill his good friend and mentor Harry McKenna(Donald Sutherland). Arthur hesitantly agrees and kills Harry.
After Harry's funeral, Arthur ends up befriending Harry's son Steve (Ben Foster). Eventually, Arthur ends up becoming his mentor and training him to become an elusive hitman. Steve's personal troubles crossover into his work as a hitman and things get more complicated when Steve begins to suspect that Arthur killed his father.
The Mechanic does what it sets out to do, entertain and provide a good time at the movies. I will say that the first half is pretty mediocre. It's gets off to kind of a clunky, uninteresting start which kinds of hurts the film. The second half is pretty damn enjoyable though and it makes up for the flaws in the first half. As usual for a Statham film, the action scenes are pretty badass. The quick cut, bloody action scenes are well done and thrilling. It really doesn't get old watching Statham tear through hordes of bad guys in every movie, he is the modern equivalent of Arnold Schwarzanager, except twice as cool and with twice as much charisma. Ben Foster throws in a solid turn as well. He is one of the best young actors in Hollywood right now (his performances in Alpha Dog and 3:10 To Yuma, especially, are spectacular) and it was interesting to see him in a straight action flick. I hope he continues to get more exposure, he is a damn fine actor.
The Mechanic is yet another good Jason Statham action movie. Despite it's average start, it ends up being pretty entertaining and an overall fun time at the movies. Jason Statham has done better and he has done worse, but his movies are almost always a good time to watch and The Mechanic is no exception.
3.5/5 Stars
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