The Mechanic

February 15, 2011

I have known about Jason Statham as "The Transporter," but I have not actually seen any of those films. The first Jason Statham movie I have seen is "The Expendables" last year. He stole the show there from right under the supposedly bigger star Stallone. That was why I was curious to watch this latest output from Statham.

Jason Statham plays the title character "mechanic" or Class-A assassin, Bishop, as calmly and stoically as they come. His friend and mentor Harry McKenna (an ever-reliable Donald Sutherland) was summarily executed in his wheelchair. Bishop was approached by Harry's son Steve (an ever crazy-looking Ben Foster) to accept him as Bishop's apprentice in the assassin trade. Of course there is the head bad guy (an ever- slimy Tony Goldwyn) they both want to kill. 

Well, I was not going to be disappointed. "The Mechanic" is really a man's action film. It follows the typical macho action film formula of slam-bang fistfights, gunfights, car crashes, fiery explosions, daring stunts, and the sexy girl on the side. No unnecessary chitchat. It even gives us some useful (?) medical information such as "Epinephine is toxic when combined with Adrenaline" or "Ketamine counteracts Adrenaline." Anyway, what the heck, we are not supposed to think in movies like this, right? Just sit back and enjoy all the cold-blooded mayhem hemmed by Simon West, the director of "Con-Air".