Synopsis: Arthur Bishop is a 'mechanic' - an elite assassin with a strict code and unique talent for cleanly eliminating targets. It's a job that requires professional perfection and total detachment, and Bishop is the best in the business. But when his mentor and close friend Harry is murdered, Bishop is anything but detached. His next assignment is self-imposed - he wants those responsible dead. His mission grows complicated when Harry's son Steve approaches him with the same vengeful goal and a determination to learn Bishop's trade. Bishop has always acted alone but he can't turn his back on Harry's son. A methodical hit man takes an impulsive student deep into his world and a deadly partnership is born. But while in pursuit of their ultimate mark, deceptions threaten to surface and those hired to fix problems become problems themselves.
Starring: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn, Mini Anden
Directed by: Simon West
U.S. Rating: R
I must start this personal review with a weird situation faced last Friday night when I went to watch the film at our local theatre. I got there and asked the guy for a ticket. He told me... "Sorry! The Mechanic is sold out!"... I got really pissed, since I was planning for the last two weeks to go and watch it. Anyway, as soon as the guy told me that, he inmediately said... "Do you want a ticket for The King's Speech instead?"... I tried for a few seconds to digest his offer and finally had to respond... "What the heck has The King's Speech to do with The Mechanic?! Is it an action film by any chance?!"... Obviously the guy answered me "No", so I finally told him... "there's your answer :)".
Anyway, I had the chance to go and watch it on Saturday evening. I was looking for watching it for a while, so I had some really good expectations. The film was pretty good. Obviously, it was a remake of a really tough classic with Charles Bronson, the only problem? Jason Statham didn''t deliver what we were expecting. He did I really good job though, but we missed something...
As said before, The Mechanic is a remake of one of Charles Bronson's classic from 1972. The film starts with Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) killing one of his targets, a very wealthy and powerful Colombian drug dealer. Not even his amazing and large personal army can stop Arthur to accomplish his objective, why? Because he's a hit man who performs his jobs cleanly, without leaving a trace of his work. As he says it later "The best jobs are the ones where they never knew you were there". He's a professional focused in every single detail related with his targets, he studies them, he learns from them, he knows every single detail and secrets about them and their lives.
Arthur works exclusively for an international secret organization, which has very strict rules: even those members who are becoming slightly unreliable are assassinated, long before they jeopardize their organization. Henry McKenna (Donald Sutherland), is another hit man working for the same organization. He is not just like Arthur's father and close friend, but his mentor. He's taught him everything he knows and he's the person who sets the jobs for him.
When Arthur gets his next assignment, he finds out that his target is Henry. He refuses to take action against Henry without knowing the reasons of this decision, so he meets with the head of this secret organization. He's told that Henry has become a threat for the organization, since he leaked some information in a recent job done in Cape Town, South Africa. Because of this leaked information, all the team assigned for this job was assassinated.
Arthur, being the best in the business, doesn't hesitate and kills his mentor, Henry. Right after Henry is buried, Arthur meets Steve McKenna (Ben Foster), Henry's son. Steve is a mess, he can't coup with the death of his father and he's planning to take revenge on this situation killing random people. Arthur stops him and, even though he feels reluctant during the first couple of days, he decides to become his mentor.
Arthur gives Steve his first assignment while he's being trained, to kill another hit man working for a competitor. Even when Arthur taught him how to do the job clean, Steve decides to do it "his way"... a very messy and rude way. When Arthur gets his next assignment, he decides to share it with Steve and work together, but a very small detail destroys their "clean" job and it turns into a violent operation.
While they escape, Arthur finds out on his way home that he was framed and "The Company" he works for made him kill his best friend for the wrong reasons. He takes it personally and decides to go against "The Company", killing every single one of them.
While preparing for this last job and revenge, Steve finds something that shows him Arthur was his father's assassin. He works with Arthur and helps him to complete this last job and revenge against the people who planned his dad's assassination and then tries to take revenge against his mentor and father's assassin, Arthur.
Personally, I really enjoyed the film. It had a really good action-packed plot and direction. They tried to keep that interaction between the modern days and the 70's, including of the old filming action-style, something I really liked and enjoyed. As said before, the downside of this film was the lead role. Jason Statham is extremely good looking like the man for the job, but there was something missing that I can't really identify yet. Ben Foster played a really good supporting role as Steve. I really enjoyed his work on this film.
I haven't watched the original film from 1972, but now that I watched and enjoyed this one, I will definitely look for watching Charles Bronson's original version. You can find more about it here.
I would rate this movie with a high 3/5
Directed by: Simon West
U.S. Rating: R
I must start this personal review with a weird situation faced last Friday night when I went to watch the film at our local theatre. I got there and asked the guy for a ticket. He told me... "Sorry! The Mechanic is sold out!"... I got really pissed, since I was planning for the last two weeks to go and watch it. Anyway, as soon as the guy told me that, he inmediately said... "Do you want a ticket for The King's Speech instead?"... I tried for a few seconds to digest his offer and finally had to respond... "What the heck has The King's Speech to do with The Mechanic?! Is it an action film by any chance?!"... Obviously the guy answered me "No", so I finally told him... "there's your answer :)".
Anyway, I had the chance to go and watch it on Saturday evening. I was looking for watching it for a while, so I had some really good expectations. The film was pretty good. Obviously, it was a remake of a really tough classic with Charles Bronson, the only problem? Jason Statham didn''t deliver what we were expecting. He did I really good job though, but we missed something...
As said before, The Mechanic is a remake of one of Charles Bronson's classic from 1972. The film starts with Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) killing one of his targets, a very wealthy and powerful Colombian drug dealer. Not even his amazing and large personal army can stop Arthur to accomplish his objective, why? Because he's a hit man who performs his jobs cleanly, without leaving a trace of his work. As he says it later "The best jobs are the ones where they never knew you were there". He's a professional focused in every single detail related with his targets, he studies them, he learns from them, he knows every single detail and secrets about them and their lives.
Arthur works exclusively for an international secret organization, which has very strict rules: even those members who are becoming slightly unreliable are assassinated, long before they jeopardize their organization. Henry McKenna (Donald Sutherland), is another hit man working for the same organization. He is not just like Arthur's father and close friend, but his mentor. He's taught him everything he knows and he's the person who sets the jobs for him.
When Arthur gets his next assignment, he finds out that his target is Henry. He refuses to take action against Henry without knowing the reasons of this decision, so he meets with the head of this secret organization. He's told that Henry has become a threat for the organization, since he leaked some information in a recent job done in Cape Town, South Africa. Because of this leaked information, all the team assigned for this job was assassinated.
Arthur, being the best in the business, doesn't hesitate and kills his mentor, Henry. Right after Henry is buried, Arthur meets Steve McKenna (Ben Foster), Henry's son. Steve is a mess, he can't coup with the death of his father and he's planning to take revenge on this situation killing random people. Arthur stops him and, even though he feels reluctant during the first couple of days, he decides to become his mentor.
Arthur gives Steve his first assignment while he's being trained, to kill another hit man working for a competitor. Even when Arthur taught him how to do the job clean, Steve decides to do it "his way"... a very messy and rude way. When Arthur gets his next assignment, he decides to share it with Steve and work together, but a very small detail destroys their "clean" job and it turns into a violent operation.
While they escape, Arthur finds out on his way home that he was framed and "The Company" he works for made him kill his best friend for the wrong reasons. He takes it personally and decides to go against "The Company", killing every single one of them.
While preparing for this last job and revenge, Steve finds something that shows him Arthur was his father's assassin. He works with Arthur and helps him to complete this last job and revenge against the people who planned his dad's assassination and then tries to take revenge against his mentor and father's assassin, Arthur.
Personally, I really enjoyed the film. It had a really good action-packed plot and direction. They tried to keep that interaction between the modern days and the 70's, including of the old filming action-style, something I really liked and enjoyed. As said before, the downside of this film was the lead role. Jason Statham is extremely good looking like the man for the job, but there was something missing that I can't really identify yet. Ben Foster played a really good supporting role as Steve. I really enjoyed his work on this film.
I haven't watched the original film from 1972, but now that I watched and enjoyed this one, I will definitely look for watching Charles Bronson's original version. You can find more about it here.
I would rate this movie with a high 3/5
Have you watched the film? What did you like or dislike from this movie? What would you rate this movie? Share with us your thoughts!
Enjoy it!... Watch it!
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