The Mechanic (2011) Review

The Mechanic, 2011
Reviewed by: Dan S.
Directed By: Simon West
Written By: Richard Wenk
Starring: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland
Language: English

Dropping the brooding existential themes and rich character development of its source material, The Mechanic ends up being a preposterous predictable tale of betryal and retribution. Clearly lacking in creative story ideas, the appeal of this film is in its shameless sleeze. The dialogue is needlessly profane, the characters are trashy with more than a few offensive stereotypes, the sex scenes are sweaty and nude, and the constant bloody violence is shockingly impactful. The fight scenes are most memorable; all being incredibly primitive and brutal with lots of painful enviroment interaction that will have you cringing. Even the gun play has more "umph" than usual, the bullets slamming into their targets like sledge hammers.

Unforunately, director Simon West is pretty unreliable when people aren't beating the crap out of each other or blowing their brains out. Working with a huge budget, he piles on the contemporary action cliches of loud music, fast editing, close ups, and shaky camera work....which wouldn't be bad if he wasn't so damn sloppy. Some high concept stunts and car trashing end up being forgettable blurs of color and sound. And sadly, Statham really can't be his lovable self in this one. Straddled with a more serious silent character, he can't wisecrack during the action and his few moments of thoughtful downtime involve him sitting around and looking dumb. Vertically challenged, chain smoking, over actor Ben Foster is bratty and annoying...as usual. Some great unintentional comedy as he struts around his house listening to an ipod, dancing and having some sort of fit. In a brief but memorable performance, the ancient wheelchair bound Donald Sutherland is surprisingly touching.

Rating: 3 Gernades out of 5