Come Fix My Problem

This past weekend I saw a great romantic comedy to get me into the whole Valentine’s day mood. There was a boy and a girl, then another boy, then another girl, then a mom, a dad, a rival, and then another boy. It was all gloriously complicated and had a happy loving awwwwww-inspiring ending. It was wonderful. I walked out of the theater happy, content, and filled with love.

…HA

You wouldn’t believe how had it was to keep a straight face while writing that. I try my best to stay clear of all that mushy crap unless it really warrants my attention, it seriously has to work for it. Most of the time even if I hear it is good, I scoff at it, wait til it comes on TV, then watch it and say “Hmm…that was actually good.” There is a process to the whole thing.

Anyways, this weekend I saw some shit get blown up, bullets fly, and fists reconstruct some faces. It was glorious. I saw The Mechanic.

Jason Statham plays Arthur Bishop, an elite assassin that is hired to take out the worlds worst offenders, with discretion. His mentor and contact Harry McKenna, Donald Sutherland, is bypassed and he is contacted by the mysterious company he works for directly. He is directed to take out Harry because he has betrayed the company and Arthur, being the professional that he is, takes out his friend even though it almost breaks him. In walks Harry’s son Steve, Ben Foster. He is a distraught, angry young man. Arthur takes him under his wing and teaches him the tricks of the “mechanic” trade.

This is actually a remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson film of the same name. I haven’t seen it so unfortunately I can’t compare them. I have to say this was better than I thought it was going to be, it is Statham after all. It has a full story, it has a few holes but it is still a whole concept. That works. It gives enough detail that it can be followed and not choppy but not too much that you become bored with too much talk.

The action starts right from the opening scene. You get to see what Arthur Bishop is all about. He is subtle, sly, and deadly. He gets his work done with a certain finesse but he gets almost no credit for. He mostly makes his kills seem like an accident. The people he is hired to assassinate usually don’t even know he is there until it is much too late. When things don’t go as smoothly out come the guns, the vehicles, and the fists. The action sequences are great. They are brutal and bloody. At points it had the whole audience crying out in pain at what was shown on screen.

Tony Goldwyn knows how to play the bad guy really well. He is slick, unsympathetic,  and threatening. Ben Foster play brooding perfectly. He maintains this hard exterior looking for an outlet and is even malicious at times but the character is clearly wounded. Donald Sutherland is only in the movie for a short while but while he is, he is the voice of experience and wisdom. And Jason Statham does what Jason Statham does. He looks tough and takes people out. And man is he good at it. Plus he takes off his shirt a few times.

My only real complaint is that the pacing is a little off. The movie takes it’s time setting up the story and introducing the characters. It isn’t slow, it is right on track, just enough talk with a good helping of action and a training montage. There is even this wicked hand to hand combat fight on a bus that is just fantastic. But then it reached the climax, the main boss, and the sequence is so abrupt it just fails. It is not that it was bad with all the bullets flying, cars crashing, and things blowing up, it was that it was too quick. This is what the whole movie was leading up to and it lasts like 5 mins.

The Mechanic is a great action movie that balances action and story pretty well. There are some wicked fights and lead filled gun battles without forgetting that there has to be a “reason” for all of it. Sure it falters a little bit but that is easy to forgive. Go see it, you’ll have a good time.

Tra