THE MECHANIC (Simon West)

-


Jason Statham has a personality that entertains; even if the stories of his films, except CRANK 1 and 2, THE BANK JOB, and his Guy Ritchie flicks “are modelled on trash” (if I may quote Keira Knightley from NEVER LET ME GO). Maybe it’s his British accent, or his muscular physique, or his ability to deliver solid blows and kicks, which kinda reminds you of Van Damme, Stallone, and even Jet Li during their prime. To add to these, Statham is good-looking, which makes him the ideal leading man.

In THE MECHANIC, which is a remake of the classic thriller starring Charles Bronson, Statham plays Arthur Bishop, a professional hitman with skills of the utmost precision and subtlety— he tries to make every hit look like natural death, or an accident as much as possible. When he finds out that he was manipulated by his employer into killing his mentor Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland), he and Harry’s wayward son Steve (Ben Foster) whom he has taken as an apprentice track down Dean (Tony Goldwyn) for the ultimate revenge.

One catchy line though, in this derivative mess of a film is when Bishop learns that Dean is sending out more assassins after him, to whom Bishop replies: “Save the fuel. I’m coming for you”. That’s got to be one for the books.

Ben Foster is equally lean and mean as the bloodthirsty novice, and he is just fit for the role. He was convincing enough to be the loose cannon character, and if there’s anyone who can pull it off, it’s Ben Foster.

The action is what you’d normally expect from a Jason Statham movie. There are explosions, ass-kicking, and people getting killed in unusual ways. In THE MECHANIC you’ll see a lethal way how to use the safety pin from a fire extinguisher.

The problem with THE MECHANIC is it loses the moral and visual impact of the original film’s ending in exchange for a need to emphasize the slickness and machismo of the protagonist. Plus, Bishop’s hits are such easy targets, morally speaking. The illegal arms dealer and the junkie preacher are downright evil that you’d expect delight seeing Statham take them out. There’s just not enough complexity to broaden the scope of Statham as a professional killer.

For what it’s worth, there’s some onscreen tension seeing Statham and Foster work together on hits, and escaping sticky situations. The two have a real gritty attitude together.

If it’s any consolation, THE MECHANIC is way better than the awful TRANSPORTER 3.

RATING: 3/5  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

-
Image
Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitalizing on ta
Read more

ANINO SA LIKOD NG BUWAN (Jun Lana, 2015)

-
Image
* English title "Shadow behind the Moon" The best term to describe Jun Lana's latest film would be a cinematic charade- a game of identities, of motives, of suppressed passions, and of uncertainty. Or the film equivalent of a Russian doll, if you will. "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" only has three characters- husband and wife Nando (Anthony Falcon) and Emma (LJ Reyes) and military man Joel (Luis Alandy). What started as a seemingly routine banter among friends gradually and intensely escalated into an examination of society, where the definition of immorality is blurred during a time of insurgency.  And in fact, the film does discuss the subject of immorality from various paradigms. When does adultery become acceptable, and to whom? Is sexual liberation more heinous than murder? Why is immorality always a double standard? The film plays out the ideas in endless games. Or are they really games at all? Lana could have stopped there, but he didn'
Read more

A study of spaces in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's 'Happy Old Year'

-
Image
Space is both an overarching theme and visual signifier in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's Happy Old Year . Its protagonist, Jean (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) comes home from a lengthy stay abroad, determined to declutter her life, and along with it, old things that belong to a past she is desperately running away from. As we watch Jean plan the redesign of their family house into a more spacious and minimalist residential office, we also witness the transformation of the persons that inhabit the house, as well as their connection to other people, most of them absent from the frame. Jean the destroyer Millennials have often been criticized for being rash with their actions, and for having their way, no matter what. The filmmaker, a millennial himself, understands this stigma, and subliminally argues that millennials are the way they are because of a multitude of factors: rising cost of living, the evolution of discourse as a result of technology (such as film streaming se
Read more