Watching this film without having seen the trailer made me ask these following questions: Is this the film where Statham is a no-questions-asked transporter of precarious things? Or maybe this is the crazy Statham film where he needs to constantly keep his adrenaline flowing either by getting into fights or electrocuting himself? How about that Statham movie where he stars along with a bunch of washed-up 90's action stars? As I sit in the theater, deliberating which premise I should hold on to before the movie starts (a film titled Mechanic: Resurrection definitely sounds like a sequel), a realization struck in my mind: Maybe, I keep getting confused which Statham film is which because Jason Statham is a typecast actor who ALMOST plays the SAME character EVERY movie.
Of course, there are a few exceptions to this, like last year's Spy, where Statham shows his comedic quips. However, with the excessive amounts of killshots here in Resurrection, he steps back again into being a relentless killing machine. Then again, this film won't fare better without him – he's mostly better than most of the films he's in, no matter how stereotypical his character can be. He may not be have a vast emotional range but his brute finesse along with his cockney accent warrants credibility to the anti-hero roles that he usually play. Still, one actor can only do so much.
To answer my question earlier, apparently, this is the Statham movie where he plays Arthur Bishop, an assassin who terminates his targets in a way that it will look like an accident. (Don't bother remembering the first film, this one feels like a stand-alone.) In here, the retired mercenary is blackmailed into killing three elusive criminals by some generic villain named Crain (Sam Hazeldine). If he fails to do so, the bad guys are going to kill his girlfriend, Gina (Jessica Alba), a woman that he basically met several hours ago. The two bonded over a Thai song and next thing, they hook up, they're in love and they're willing to die for each other – that level of cringe-worthiness. Neither does flaunting Statham's and Alba's beach bods help in pleading an appeal to their chemistry. If you don't buy the feeble romance subplot, the rest of the action that follows will have no drive at all.
What's shocking is, despite all the globe-trotting this film has to offer (Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and Bulgaria), Resurrection still comes out as flat. Director Dennis Gansel clearly tries to outdo bigger tent-pole action films like James Bond, Jason Bourne or Mission Impossible with all the over-the-top action sequences but plot-wise, it won't even match by an inch. Even the direction and cinematography look as uninspired as its screenplay. I enjoyed, however, a showstopper Ghost Protocol-inspired scene where Bishop flushes out a man from a high-rise pool. Apart from that, it will be hard to suspend disbelief in all of the far-fetched tricks. Especially in the film's opening sequence where Bishop smoothly jumps from a cable car to a flying paraglider. As if it's as simple as playing hopscotch.
Mechanic: Resurrection should not disappoint Statham fans and I will still put this in my bin of guilty pleasure mindless action films, only to re-watch if I have nothing better to do. If only the film had a flash of ingenuity, this could have turned out different. Otherwise, if you want this to be both high on adrenaline and intellect, send it to a screenplay mechanic for it badly needs a plot overhaul.
Full review: http://www.filmpolicereviews.com/reviews/mechanic-resurrection
Of course, there are a few exceptions to this, like last year's Spy, where Statham shows his comedic quips. However, with the excessive amounts of killshots here in Resurrection, he steps back again into being a relentless killing machine. Then again, this film won't fare better without him – he's mostly better than most of the films he's in, no matter how stereotypical his character can be. He may not be have a vast emotional range but his brute finesse along with his cockney accent warrants credibility to the anti-hero roles that he usually play. Still, one actor can only do so much.
To answer my question earlier, apparently, this is the Statham movie where he plays Arthur Bishop, an assassin who terminates his targets in a way that it will look like an accident. (Don't bother remembering the first film, this one feels like a stand-alone.) In here, the retired mercenary is blackmailed into killing three elusive criminals by some generic villain named Crain (Sam Hazeldine). If he fails to do so, the bad guys are going to kill his girlfriend, Gina (Jessica Alba), a woman that he basically met several hours ago. The two bonded over a Thai song and next thing, they hook up, they're in love and they're willing to die for each other – that level of cringe-worthiness. Neither does flaunting Statham's and Alba's beach bods help in pleading an appeal to their chemistry. If you don't buy the feeble romance subplot, the rest of the action that follows will have no drive at all.
What's shocking is, despite all the globe-trotting this film has to offer (Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and Bulgaria), Resurrection still comes out as flat. Director Dennis Gansel clearly tries to outdo bigger tent-pole action films like James Bond, Jason Bourne or Mission Impossible with all the over-the-top action sequences but plot-wise, it won't even match by an inch. Even the direction and cinematography look as uninspired as its screenplay. I enjoyed, however, a showstopper Ghost Protocol-inspired scene where Bishop flushes out a man from a high-rise pool. Apart from that, it will be hard to suspend disbelief in all of the far-fetched tricks. Especially in the film's opening sequence where Bishop smoothly jumps from a cable car to a flying paraglider. As if it's as simple as playing hopscotch.
Mechanic: Resurrection should not disappoint Statham fans and I will still put this in my bin of guilty pleasure mindless action films, only to re-watch if I have nothing better to do. If only the film had a flash of ingenuity, this could have turned out different. Otherwise, if you want this to be both high on adrenaline and intellect, send it to a screenplay mechanic for it badly needs a plot overhaul.
Full review: http://www.filmpolicereviews.com/reviews/mechanic-resurrection