The Mechanic (2011)

Touches You

Let's be realistic.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a typical Statham flick, nothing less, nothing more, nothing extraordinary, but just enough to carry you through, the background score is good, complements well the style and suave to the movie, action scenes are not noteworthy, but overall the movie just about does the job for a Statham fan. Will go with a 5.5-6 out of 10 for this one...

Jason statham has become known for the vast amount of action films that he is involved in and this film is another one and one that I actually enjoyed a bit. The premise of this film sees after the death of his mentor an assassin takes his son under his wing and attempts to show him the ropes. As mentioned before Jason statham is the lead in this film and he was pretty perfect for this role, he fits this assassin role well and it is easy to believe in him in the role. He bought his usual tough guy attitude to the role but I did find him pretty entertaining in this film. Ben foster plays his associate in this film and I thought he was pretty fantastic in his film, he was easily the most interesting character in the film and I found him the most entertaining to watch. His and statham's chemistry is easily the best part of this film to watch. However, the rest of the cast doesn't provide anything at all. It is the typical action film clichés and it really holds this film back from being more interesting then it is. The story of this film has a pretty interesting dynamic between statham and foster and watching that friendship develop throughout the film is the one thing that sets this film apart. But as the film progressed I realised that the plot is very generic and actually pretty unfocused especially towards the middle of the film. The script has some decent banter and dramatic dialogue but nothing that really stands out in any way shape or form. The style has some really cool shoot outs that I found fun to watch and some decent stunts. There is some hand to hand action scenes and i feel like there is just too many quick cuts used so it is a bit hard to focus on what is exactly going on during them. Overall this is an alright action film that is totally watchable but not really a must see.

"The Mechanic" is an American English-language movie from 2011, so this one had its 5th anniversary last year. The director is Simon West who is from England, just like his lead actor Jason Statham in here and these two have collaborated on several occasions. The movie runs for slightly over 90 minutes and this already includes a great deal of closing credits, so it is really not a long movie at all. Last year there was a sequel, but that one got directed by German filmmaker Dennis Gansel actually. But back to this one here. The screenplay is by Richard Wenk and Oscar nominee Lewis John Carlino, who also wrote the original story here. Most known supporting players are Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland and Tony Goldwyn. I personally think that Ben Foster is among the most talented actors of his generation and has several really strong films in his body of work. Shame he did not get a major nomination yet as I believe he is severely underrated. Sadly, this movie we have here is not really a strong addition to his career. He has a great deal of screen time, but the script just won't allow him to shine as the longer the film goes the more it is really just about the action and about making Statham look as cool and badass as possible.But they screwed up with the general plot idea already. They certainly tried all they could to justify Statham's contract killer character only being the messenger by telling everybody that Sutherland's character had to die anyway and all, but still it is tough to believe that Foster's character, the son of the victim is really not mad at all when it comes to Statham, has only the intention to kill the ones who ordered the murder. Then again, the ending which is interesting somehow with the major plot twist justifies this a little bit. But the very ending with the final explosion is one that once again completely lacks in substance and really only serves as means to make Statham('s character look good). In terms of the story and the character, there is very little (almost nothing) beyond the surface here and while the film early on had moments that somehow offered the opportunity for at least a decent crime action movie, it all was basically thrown away in the second half. Maybe Carlino, in his mid-80s now, is really way too far past his peak. But maybe also Wenk is the one to blame. Oh yeah, this film here is somewhat of a remake of the then almost 40-year-old film with the same title starring Charles Bronson. haven't seen that one, so I cannot say if it is any better. But this one here also shows that Statham is probably not an actor that can make an action movie work as a lead actor if the material is not really good. He seems to be pretty limited in range. Luckily (I guess), they did not include a weak romance story line here, but focused on all the male characters instead and the outcome was still pretty bad. I guess they did include romance in the sequel I mentioned earlier as that one is co-starring Jessica Alba. But judging from the quality of this first film here, it never should have been made and you can use this reference for the second and first film I guess. Money makes the world go round. Sad state of affairs. It summarizes this movie perfectly that the only awards recognition it received is for its stunts. Enough said. Don't watch.

This was different than what I was expecting especially in the beginning where it wasn't your usual mindless Jason Statham action flick. For the first half (anyways) the car chases and cool choreographed fight scenes take a back seat, in fact there are large sections where Statham isn't even in it, he just narrates. Instead we get Ben Foster, which is no hardship.Intriguing story once I got on board, revolving around an elite assassin who gets double crossed and then proceeds to teach his trade to an apprentice who had a connection to one of his previous victims. As things progress the body count rises, Statham shows his moves and things get awesome. The window washing stunt was excellent as was all the twisty double crossing. Great (explosive) ending. 5/24/14