Somehow, over the course of the past decade, Jason Statham has become the leading action star of this generation. Always in demand, he’s turned out an average of just under three films a year since his debut in 1998’s Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and his films somehow always seem to turn at least a modest profit. He hasn’t done it on the back of any particularly strong acting abilities, decent scripts or incredibly memorable roles. If anything he’s shown a generally dodgy taste in scripts, having turned down Dog Soldiers to star in Ghosts Of Mars and having agreed to appear in Death Race and In The Name Of The King at all. The key is that Statham is apparently made of Teflon. Teflon with incredibly ripped abs. No matter how bad the project is, and no matter how flat the script and his performance, Statham has this natural likeability to him that makes the stench just slide right off and things appear better than they really are. It can’t be Statham’s fault, after all.
It’s a good thing Statham was cast in Simon West’s remake of 1970’s Charles Bronson star vehicle The Mechanic, then, because without the charismatic one-two punch of Statham and Ben Foster along with a fistful of well executed action sequences this film would be HORRIBLE. A Vin Diesel version of The Mechanic, for instance, would have been absolutely unbearable but with Statham in the lead all the crappy dialogue and massive plot holes just fade away into a testosterone fuelled homoerotic haze. That the film is getting a large theatrical release rather than going straight to video is still somewhat baffling but hell, it’s entertaining enough and the explosions look better this way.
Statham stars as Arthur Bishop, a high end ‘mechanic’ in the employ of a shadowy organization. Which is to say he’s an assassin. And a good one. One who has no interest in explaining to you why he does what he does or developing any sort of moral code about only shooting bad people or any other bullshit like that. He’s just a guy who is very good at killing people and does so for large amounts of money hand delivered to him by Donald Sutherland. Until he’s asked to kill Donald Sutherland at which point ol’ Donnie is unavailable to make any future deliveries and Statham -- why even pretend anyone cares about his character’s name? -- feels sad.
Also feeling sad is Sutherland’s neglected son, played by Ben Foster (30 Days Of Night, The Messenger, 3:10 To Yuma) whose character name I cannot remember and cannot be bothered to look up. It’s not that sort of film. It doesn’t matter anyway. Foster’s got a lot of unresolved daddy issues and pent up anger that he’s struggling to find an outlet for and... hey! Here’s an idea! Why not put that anger into helping Statham kill people!
Don’t even try to find a moral center to this movie. It doesn’t exist. Unless maybe it’s when Statham gives a puppy to the hooker he bangs when he’s feeling randy after a job. That bit’s kind of sweet. And you get to see her tits, too. Oh, god, not only does this film not have a moral center of its own but it has completely knocked me off mine as well...
Anyway, Statham and Foster kill a bunch of people before Statham finds out that the Donald Sutherland hit was a setup to protect Statham’s crooked boss, which offends Statham in a way that being told to kill other guys for no particular reason other than pay does not, so Statham and Foster go off to do a bit of boss hunting. Walls are scaled, guns are fired, buses are crashed, cars are exploded, Worst Guy (boss) is killed by Bad Guys (Statham and Foster) and all is right in the world again. Now we should all go bang a hooker to celebrate!
Right. The Mechanic is not a good film by any objective measure. But it does boast several very solidly executed -- if extremely logic-defying -- action set pieces well constructed by Con Air director Simon West, who knows a thing or two about making wildly illogical and yet perversely entertaining films. And Statham and Foster -- who is an honest to god actual good actor in high demand, making his presence here very perplexing -- have enough natural charisma and chemistry together to carry you through the bits that don’t actually make that much sense. Which is pretty much everything that doesn’t involve someone getting shot. If you’re prepared to just roll with that then The Mechanic is a fun night out. But whatever you do, for the love of god, just DON’T THINK.