The Action is Mechanical But...
2 stars
Mini Review:
Jason Statham can fix anything and make it look like an accident. Now he has to take on a job to create three accidents to save his girl. That’s why the mafia calls him the ‘mechanic’. The locales are wonderful, the panoramic shots beautiful but the romance is unbelievable and the action, predictable.
Main Review:
The eponymous action hero never misses. And so it is in this movie. Whether it’s hand to hand or legs to heads or guns and grenades to guns and bodies…Jason Statham plays the role of the man hounded for his skills. Remember the 2011 remake of the original 1972 movie? You watched Jason Statham strangle, shoot, drug baddies on contract with a chap who betrays him (of course!) and ignores even the simplest request: Do not touch the turntable.
In this film too the turntable makes an appearance (and an enviable collection of records!) and a boat parked in Rio. That city makes for beautiful cinematography, even though the shots in the boat seem to be constricted and awkward.
Those who have not seen the previous film will gasp at the cash and guns and computers and passports stashed away, but it simply adds to the cool quotient of the mechanic. The fight at the restaurant seems contrived and they make it up by a brilliant escape.
An old foe is trying to bully the mechanic into taking that one last job. When the mechanic lands up in an impossibly beautiful island. If the beauty does not stun you into googling the location, then you probably liked the charred, barbecued face of the baddie, grill marks and all…
You don’t ask questions like ‘How on Earth does an African baddie end up in Malaysia?’ or ‘Where is the law when a big Aussie baddie lives so openly?’ or even, ‘If he’s so rich, how come he doesn’t own the building?’
You just enjoy the action and the cool confidence that Jason Statham exudes as he steps out on the skyscraper without feeling dizzy. Then we meet Tommy Lee Jones who…Oh yes, the romantic track between Statham and Jessica Alba is so weird, you wonder if a chap who has seen it all and done it all will fall in love with someone after watching one video conveniently available.
The action flick is no more than 99 minutes long. It’s not great, but keeps you engaged, even though you’d prefer it if action heroes rode away into the sunset alone, like cowboys in stories you read growing up…
(this review appears on nowrunning dot com)
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