The Mechanic (2011)
Directed by Simon West
Arthur Bishop is a 'mechanic' - an elite assassin with a strict code requiring professional perfection and total detachment. One of an elite group of assassins, Bishop may be the best in the business - with a unique talent for cleanly eliminating targets. When Harry McKenna, his close friend and mentor, is murdered, Harry's son comes to him with vengeance in his heart and a desire to learn Bishop's trade, signaling the birth of a deadly partnership.
19 connections found
View:
19 films that influenced The Mechanic
What critics say influenced The Mechanic
Following on the heels of the most excellent updated version of True Grit we have a remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson-starring film The Mechanic (click for info about the original).
THE MECHANIC Jason Statham bares his six-pack before speaking his first line in this humorless, efficient remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson hitman movie.
“The Mechanic” is a remake of a largely forgotten 1972 thriller starring Charles Bronson.
Although most people will probably not remember the original, "The Mechanic" (opened January 28 throughout San Diego) is a remake of a 70s Charles Bronson film.
The Mechanic , a remake of sorts of the 1972 Charles Bronson film of the same name, plays the formula to a tee.
Along the way, we are treated to a are-they-really-gonna-go-there homage to the semiclassic and thoroughly disreputable '70s revenge thriller "Rolling Thunder" (two words, kids: garbage disposal), an urgent lesson in chemistry (if you wanna kill a guy with an adrenaline overdose, he can't have been doing ketamine before you hit him with that stuff; bet you didn't know that, did you?) and a lot of no-messing-around, intense action.
An attempt at giving Arthur a sensitive side goes as far as his penchant for listening to classical music in his downtime, while Steve, for all intents and purposes, is an unhinged soul practicing to be a serial killer straight out of 1981's infamously controversial William Friedkin thriller "Cruising."
The hero is one of those cool, existential hit men who've been strolling across movie screens at least since Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai (1967), and while that pop mythology was still relatively fresh back in Bronson's day, it's so played out at this point that not even the enjoyably no-nonsense Statham can pump any life into it.
Advertisement
Nobody's asking for Mel and Danny in Lethal Weapon - and certainly not for Will and Mark in The Other Guys - but it'd be nice if Jason Statham and Ben Foster, The Mechanic's mentor/protege duo (this week's theme, see The Rite) , could crack a smile.
Even Keanu Reeves got “Speed” and “The Matrix.”
More in retrospect than at the time, the first incarnation of The Mechanic enjoys a certain stature as one of the first pure American entries in the hired assassin sub-genre, in addition to being a sort of warm-up for the Charles Bronson-Michael Winner teaming on the Death Wish movies that began two years later.
What’s next for Statham, remaking Death Wish ?
Even Keanu Reeves got “Speed” and “The Matrix.”
Advertisement
“This ain’t The Godfather , a’rite,” came ‘The Stath’s’ mockney reply.
Written by Lewis John Carlino, who would also write the screenplays for such great films as “Seconds,” “The Great Santini” and “Resurrection.”