A remake of a Charles Bronson film, The Mechanic stars Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Donald Sutherland in a movie that has action, some gore and plenty of a stern-faced Jason Statham.
Statham stars as Bishop, a high-end assassin scrambling to fill his work schedule. When one job gets too personal, Bishop's conscience bothers him into taking on a reckless apprentice, played by Ben Foster (The Messenger). If you're thinking The Mechanic looks like The Transporter, another Statham action yarn, let me assure that you're way off — after all, there's no driving in this movie.
There also aren't any truly amazing fight scenes.
Instead, we get Statham looking stern throughout as he sleepwalks through uninspired action scenes that soon blend together due to a lack of variation in how they are shot (alternate shaky cams with tripod shots in a confusing sequence; repeat). This movie is also a bit darker than Transporter, and offers less of the dark humor that made that movie fun.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.