Mechanic: Resurrection

(spoiler free)

Jason Statham is one of the best action stars working today, he has done countless films where he wages a one man war on his foes. There have been mixed results over the years, some are really fun whilst others are just too silly. Recently he has become more of an ensemble cast member through the likes of ‘The Expendables’ & ‘The Fast & Furious’ films. This is no bad thing though as he works very well amongst others but with the sequel to 2011’s ‘The Mechanic’ he is going it alone once more for ‘Mechanic: Resurrection’.

Gone are the likes of Ben Foster & Donald Sutherland from the first film so this time round the other famous names joining the Stath are Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones & Michelle Yeoh. Alba, who hasn’t really been in many big movies recently, gets very little to do here. Her character basically fulfills the role of the damsel in distress although she isn’t entirely dependent on Statham as she can throw a couple of punches too. Yeoh has a slightly better role, acting as a past friend of Statham’s character. Her part is small too but she’s only really a supporting character. Racking up another action credit for this year is Tommy Lee Jones who seemingly just can’t get enough of the genre. His performance is nothing to write home about as he’s fairly unconvincing as the wealthy European arms dealer, Max Adams. Whilst this isn’t his finest performance the film on a whole is at least better than his other 2016 efforts; ‘Criminal’ & ‘Jason Bourne’. The film is really all about Statham though and as always he delivers, shooting, punching and exploding his way through the B-movie running time in his usual fashion.

Alongside a Statham action flick you never quite know what quality of film-making will be present and ‘Mechanic: Resurrection’ is a mixed bag. A lot of the backdrops to scenes looked terrible. Whether this was skylines, oceans or just surrounding scenery it was always best to focus on the characters because the whole picture never looked that convincing. This was probably the weakest element to the film. One thing I was glad that was featured in the film was the theme music from the first film, when this music is played it really brought the film together and offered some nice continuity from the first film. What about the action though? Well the film takes inspiration from many films past in this genre but it’s still entertaining so it doesn’t matter too much. There are some scenes better than others but the highlight would have to be an assault on a boat around halfway through the film. The action was best when it was simply and watching Statham wreck an entire ships crew was the most fun the film had to offer. In all honesty that’s what I’ve come to expect from this action stars films and I’m genuinely satisfied if I get it. There are other problems with the narrative too and the villain isn’t really worth talking about but none of that really bothered me.

‘Mechanic: Resurrection’ isn’t the best Statham action flick but it’s far from his worst and is a lot better than many of the efforts 2016 has put out so far. For the most part it’s well paced and offers what the viewers want to see. Statham stands out around a largely wasted cast but that’s okay as viewers should just expect to see Statham waste all the bad guys and that he does!

Rating – 7/10

Question: What is your favourite Jason Statham movie?
(Leave your answers in the comments section below!)

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