Plot: The film, directed by Simon West, is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name that starred Charles Bronson. Statham stars as Arthur Bishop, a professional assassin who hunts down the murderers of his friend Harry (Donald Sutherland). Though Bishop works alone, he reluctantly lets Harry’s son Steve (Ben Foster) accompany him in the hunt, training him as an assassin. It was released in the United States and Canada on January 28, 2011.
Impressions: I went to see The Mechanic and I must say that I was really impressed with the story and action. To make it short, you meet the mechanic ‘Arthur Bishop’ (Statham) and the guy is pretty much very good at his job, yet very anal as well. Bishop reminds me a bit of Golgo 13 if any of you seen that Anime before. Everything must be clean and blend in as much as possible to never be seen at the time of the crime. Basically all of his jobs are made to look as they died of natural causes.
Meet Henry McNenna he taught Bishop everything he knows about begin a hired gun. Only thing is Henry is old, handicapped, and has a son who is a big disappoint to him. We easily see and get the impression that Henry sees Bishop as the son he wished he had. A job comes along and Bishop is caught between a rock and a hard place to do the job or let someone else finish it but the only problem is the job is Henry.
Did Bishop get all facts straight with Henry messing up in Cape Town or was it all lies? The question is no one really knows… or do they? Now Henry’s son, Steve, comes upon hearing about the death of his father. The kid is completely out of control; an alcoholic…just a wreck. He takes matters into his own hands to just kill any random carjacker for revenge. Sadly he doesn’t know the truth about who really did what and in an act to stop him from making a grave mistake, taking some poor dumb guys life that night, Steve asks Bishop to teach him all that he knows. He was a little reluctant, but decides to take him under his wing despite Henry’s warnings. Does Steve McKenna have the mind set and skill to become a mechanic as good as Bishop?
II enjoyed the movie and thought it was great action from beginning to end. Then again it’s Jason Statham and you can never go wrong with most of his films when expecting action. He will give you a show worth your money!
I loved the direction they took with the film in you got to see how very different Bishop and Steve are at being a ‘Mechanic’. As I stated before Bishop is very anal and meticulous. I enjoyed his character, because his mind was always working and thinking about how could he go about each assignment smoothly without making a mistake. You just never knew what was going on in his head as he worked. As with Steve… he’s just a loose cannon about everything. His very first job I was actually hoping the kid would have done what was told of him to do, but like any boy that is a rebel he went about things his own way and it almost lead to his downfall. Through the course of the movie you start seeing Bishops’ influence on Steve and it starting to take an affect on him which showed them developing as characters.
This movie was a remake of a 1972 film starring Charles Bronson that I personally never got to watch but I would like to see the old now to see how well the remake follows the original.
