15 - 93mins - Action/Crime/Thriller - 28th January 2011
The Mechanic sees Jason Statham in a role that he rarely leaves these days as a vigilante, in this case called Arthur who fights against many enemies. The plot takes it's slight twist by the addition of a sidekick of sorts in the form of Steve (Ben Foster).
Arthur is a lone hitman who is very good at what he does by eliminating targets whilst making them look like accidents. But when his mentor Harry (Donald Sutherland) is killed leaving behind his son Steve, Arthur takes him under his wing and trains him up, teaching him the ways of becoming a successful hitman. Together they carry out contracts while all the time trying to unravel who killed Harry and why.
The movie is enjoyable with the action and methods in which the contracts are executed making it a decent watch but it never really takes off as a film tending just to jump from one death to another without giving enough plot to keep me overly interested.
I'm actually finding it quite hard to talk about anything else in this movie because there just isn't that much to talk about. The acting was OK, not bad or amazing and the same can be said of the rest of it as well. It delivers on the action scenes but a film cannot be totally reliant on just action to see it through.
I think this can be summed up as a typical Statham movie with lots of action, a story that is never going to blow you away and a girl or two thrown in for good measure. Probably not as good as Crank but gives you a similar way to spend an hour and a half if your looking for a reasonable action/thriller. If that's not what your after then this won't be one for you. Wait for it to come out as a cheap DVD or on the TV.
Rating: C+
Next up is the latest summer blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides [my review] which welcomes back some familiar faces while adding a few new ones to the mixer to freshen up the series that was only worsening by the end of the last film. As always the trailer is below so check it out.
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