Monday, February 07, 2011


Movie review - the mechanic, let's have some kicking and banging and shooting shall we?


As my legion of dedicated fan will observe the last couple of movies to grace these ephemeral digital pages have been, well, a little worthy, a little 'arty' maybe, a little bit 'girls films' and although I'm always more than happy to exercise my artistic and emotional muscles if I'm honest I'd probably tend toward films giving some bad-ass dude a well-deserved kicking rather than exploring the emotional and artistic dissonance involved in the brutal world of interpretive dance.



Many, many moons ago I saw a compelling film called the Mechanic, made by Michael Winner and fronted by the expressive Charles Bronson. There were, to my 16 year old mind two things that stood out in that movie, a stunning dirt bike chase through the California scrubland and the astonishment when the seemingly invincible Chuckles Bronson was bested by his ambitious young protege, immediately followed by the twist when the mentor reached out post-mortem to teach one last incendiary lesson.

This remake, playing to Jason Stathams strengths and positioning him as an executioner of bad folk, (which raises some moral issues that, obviously the film never explored) lacks a few things. It lacks the dirt-bike chase, it lacks the mutual destruction of both protagonists, (probably to allow for a sequel) and thankfully it lacks any trace of Michael Winner's deft touch. It does have some nice stuff, a controlled and athletic performance from both leads, a brief but powerful performance from Donald Sutherland, (I've been a big fan since MASH, Klute and Animal House). There's tons of kicking and fighting and shooting and explosions. The setting in Louisiana is different and attractively portrayed and if one was going to choose the lonely life of a hitman this seemed to be the one to choose.

This is not a movie that will challenge your emotions or intellect, it's no Leon but it's exciting, well acted, great stuntwork, well filmed and fun. Mrs Stuffy did drift off briefly but she may have well have been in transient catatonic shock from discovering that four sweets from the pic'n'mix came to 44 pennies, that's 11p for about 2cc's of fudge!

Now there's a case for justifiable homicide

A hitman haiku
Statham's mechanic
Dispatches without panic
No Winner? winner!

2 Comments:

At 1:47 pm, Blogger Davebo said...

Winner was on Radio2 the other day and said the (new) film got a bit of a panning between giggles. 'I'm such a bitch' said the deranged food critic. Indeed Michael.

 
At 10:03 am, Blogger agan interisti said...

what this movie ??
the others can be interest,can be glad and enjoy this movie.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home