Review for Mechanic - Resurrection

The Mechanic: Resurrection is the sequel to the 2011 film which was a remake of a 1970s Charles Bronson film of the same name. Starring Jason Statham he is Arthur Bishop who is a particular type of hitman, as a 'mechanic' he is able to make his kills look like accidents.

At the end of the last film, Bishop has faked his own death and living a peaceful life. That is until Riah Crain sends his goons to smoke him out. He tries to escape to Thailand where he encounters old friend Mae and the gorgeous Gina who is the victim of domestic abuse. Saving her from this, making his death look like an accident in the process he finds this was a setup. Gina was being blackmailed by Crain who kidnaps Gina and sets Bishop three targets to kill with him having to make each of them look like an accident. If he doesn't do it then he will kill Gina. This leads Bishop around the world to do what he does best.

Now I love Jason Statham. He is the 2000s version of Stallone or Schwarzenegger and really the only people who compare are Dwayne Johnson or Liam Neeson. However, after sitting through a decade of action films from him such as Crank, The Expendables and others I have begun to notice just how little range Statham has as an actor. Now I don't expect him to be doing Hamlet any time soon, but by this point I do want him to put on a performance that will amaze me. The reason why Stallone won nominations galore for his role in Creed is because it was such a departure from his previous work in his action films that it made an impact. I am waiting for Statham to do that and unfortunately this film is not it. It is true that he does a competent job, but it is not as memorable as his other 
performances.

As for the rest of the cast? Michelle Yeoh seems wasted as Bishop's ally in Thailand and Jessica Alba seems to be on cruise control as the love interest. It is true that she is stunningly gorgeous, but that does not translate to an interesting or enjoyable performance. Sam Hazeldine as Crain was painfully bad and I think it needed someone more established or for someone to make more of the role as it just didn't work. The advertisements make much of the film also starring Tommy Lee Jones, but this is a glorified cameo at best.

It is not surprising that this film was generally panned by critics. It is a very bizarre film that falls into the 'Action/Explosion/Leave Brain at the Door' genre which I just wasn't sure about. There are times when I love this type of film, but this cliched film just felt lazy. I understand the morality of the film with him wanting to save the girl and of course the three people he is ordered to kill consist of people who do deserve to be wiped out, but that doesn't make it fun to watch.

The ways he kills his targets are inventive and the pool scene was visually stunning, but really apart from these sections it is just mindless action. It doesn't have the same brutal style as the Taken movies or the over-the-top-ness of The Expendables and in some ways that makes it worse. Once the film ended I did not recall a single thing from the film.

When you glance at the extra features on the box cover you can be forgiven for thinking that you are getting quite a lot. There are five featurettes and this seems like the film will get a good amount of coverage. That is until you watch them...

All TWENTY TWO MINUTES AND NINETY SECONDS OF IT!!!???

It is unbelieveable that they would even bother putting some of these on the disk when three of them are practically a minute long!?

The Malaysian Prison quickly looks at the setting of that scene, Michelle Yeoh, Secret Ally focuses on her small role for some reason and Statham on Stunts is him saying how he likes to do his own stunts. These are a joke and the fact that the stunt work, possibly the selling point of the film is given a MINUTE TWENTY THREE SECONDS of time to discuss is a joke. They spend more time talking about the music in Scoring the Action which is not even something I noticed while watching and the brief overview Making of is again only nine minutes.

This was a joke.

I refuse to believe that Jason Statham could only talk about his stunt work on this film for a little over a minute. This should be a good twenty minute discussion of every set piece instead of just a random few comments. The featurette on Michelle Yeoh makes you wonder was that just to remind people that she was in the film and if so why not include a minute on Jessica Alba and Tommy Lee Jones too?

I am just amazed that whoever put this set together thought that this was enough. No trailers, no production stills, no other interviews or commentaries, nothing. Now usually when I don't enjoy a film I hate having to watch hours of extra footage and maybe they knew that no one cared and the ones who did want to watch the film wouldn't be interested in a commentary about how the film was made?

The Mechanic: Resurrection was a massive box office hit and based on the ending it is possibly the first of many in this film series. It is a shame that a film like this can be so financially successful as it shows just how much the viewing public will watch anything as long as it is loud and full of explosions. I found this film dripping with cliches to the point where as each one came on I felt my enjoyment drain away.

This is not to say the film is without merit as I did enjoy moments and certainly the action set pieces are executed well. Unfortunately I just found nothing original in the film and this is certainly not a film I would watch again. If the goal was to create the perfect action film then this mechanic needs to put some more work in.