The Mechanic (2011): More Drinking Than Killing
Posted By Action Flick Chick on January 31, 2011
It’s been a while since I’ve linked a song with a movie so here you go. Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) and almost every male in The Mechanic can best be summarized by Paula Abdul’s song “Cold Hearted.” For those of you who aren’t cool like me and don’t know the song, these are the lyrics I’m talking about: He’s a cold-hearted snake, Look into his eyes, oh ohhh, He’s been tellin’ lies. I would be happy to say this about the ladies in the film, but there weren’t any. Only the traditional, barely there roles of prostitute, mother, and daughter. This is a movie about manly men!
Arthur is a cold hearted mechanic, a.k.a. hitman, who excels in killing people discretely and making it look like an accident. His mentor’s son, Steve McKenna (Ben Foster), wants to follow in his father’s foot steps and become a hit man so Arthur begins his training. Working together quickly makes them the best bosom buddies either of them has ever had, and together they take on the head “mechanic.”
Sounds good right? The trailer looked great. I was super excited to see The Mechanic, but then I watched it. A little part of me is crying inside because I want to love this film, but I just don’t. Sigh. The characters are so cold hearted, you don’t care about any of them or what happens to them. I did care a smidgen about Arthur, but just because he’s Jason Statham, and I definitely didn’t care about any of the rest. They tried to give you reasons to hate the people that were being killed, but it didn’t work. Part of what makes a good action flick is that you love to see the bad guys get what they deserve, but I didn’t care about any of the baddies getting their comeuppance in The Mechanic.
And the action! Where was it? All of the action scenes are shown in the trailer. They spent more time drinking than they did killing people, and that’s not what I want to see in an action movie. The Mechanic had a great opening sequence, went downhill in the second act, but then finally picked up with the action in the third act. Is it too much to ask for a film with 70 minutes of action, no more than 20 minutes setup and plot? Maybe my expectations were too high this time.
Still, The Mechanic was an all right film. I love Jason Statham and his work. He, himself, did a fine job as well as everyone else. It had some cool moments and some very dull moments. It just didn’t get me pumped up.
Time Until the Action Starts: ~ 2 minutes
Baddies: Dean (Tony Goldwyn), head of the “mechanics.”
Best Line: “You’re a GD machine.” True statement.
Best Kill: Bad guys are walking along the dock when Arthur jumps out of the water and spears one of the baddies right in the calf muscle. The baddie falls down screaming with his head hanging over the edge of the dock. Arthur bends his neck backwards over the dock and breaking it with his bare hands.
Best Explosion: Steve and Arthur are driving after their main baddie, Dean, who is surrounded by cars in front and back of him. One by one they pick off the cars surrounding Dean. Steve hijacks a city bus and is driving it head on into the first car of the baddie’s entourage. Steve bails just in time when the car collides with the bus, driving up into it and exploding.
Action Rating: 2 Mechanics, out of 5.
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
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[...] The Mechanic (2011) [...]
I saw a more than an adequate amount of action in the film, especially when compared to the original which you didn’t even mention in the above review. You can check it out on Netflix Instant.
shortened link = http://is.gd/MECH11