Mechanic: Resurrection (2016) - Theatrical Review

Director: Dennis Gansel
Cast: Jason Statham, Tommy Lee Jones, Jessica Alba, Michelle Yeoh
Country: United States
Rating: R
Run Time: 98 min

Mechanic: Resurrection is a rare breed, an unnecessary sequel to an unnecessary remake, let alone one released five years after its predecessor. I've always loved Michael Winner's original 1972 The Mechanic, both one of the director's finest works and one of action star Charles Bronson's most poignant and subtle performances. It's one of the all time great lone assassin films, with excellent action sequences, a gripping character driven story, and one of the all time great twist endings. Simon West's 2011 remake, also titled The Mechanic, is a fairly bland update of the original, only offering up new action sequences and new actors within the same story occupied by the same characters. While West did a good job upping the action ante, he essentially drained all of the nuance out of Winner's original and opted for more numb skulled entertainment where the villains were obvious and their deaths deserved. It's a solid action film, and deserved of a rental, but essentially made for no other purpose than to fill the space at the bottom of the bargain bin or to occupy air time on the television channel FX.

The last thing that anyone could have expected from a remake of The Mechanic was a sequel, especially when one takes into account the infamous nature of the original film's classic ending. However, those who have seen the remake will remember that it altered the ending of the original for a safer ending that doesn't challenge the audience in any way. What's even more surprising to me is that a sequel was made at all, given that the remake wasn't even that successful, grossing about $60 million off of a $40 million budget. Without any more Transporter films to his name, and with no third Crank film in sight any time soon, I guess Statham needs some sort of franchise to front, so why not turn that generic Mechanic remake of his into his latest franchise? Oh well, Hollywood loves their franchises, and I love my action stars, so of course I'll turn out to a needless and shameless sequel that dares to flaunt the subtitle "Resurrection." Therefore, I showed up and represented my genre as one of ten people in a screening of the film on a Tuesday night at 7:30 P.M. You could really feel the energy in the air.

The most compelling relationship ever put to screen.

Mechanic: Resurrection is a perfectly adequate action thriller that stands as both one of Statham's weaker studio releases and one of the most enjoyable guilty pleasures of the year. Produced by Millenium Films, who used to specialize only in low budget DTV actioners but now produces mid budget actioners with impressive casts and DTV-ish plots, the sequel is arguably their best release this year. Unfortunately, that's not saying much when your competition is the mean spirited London Has Fallen and the dull but admirable Criminal. Overall, Mechanic: Resurrection finds the proper tonal middle ground for a Millenium Film's release between dour and ridiculous, coming out a semi-competent but watchable actioner. It's far from commendable, and in all honesty quite a narrative mess, but Mechanic: Resurrection does nothing more than offer up loads of shootouts and fist fights featuring one of action cinema's greatest stars, Jason Statham.

After escaping death at the end of The Mechanic, Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham), master assassin, now resides in Rio De Janeiro in order to keep a low profile. When an old friend from his past asks him to assassinate three men, he declines. Bishop is immediately attacked, and unfortunately has to leave his new life behind in order to go into hiding once again. When he heads out to a tropical island in Thailand, he meets Gina Thorne (Jessica Alba), an abused woman whom he instantly falls in love with (of course). However, Bishop's old friend, Riah Crain, locates his whereabouts, and kidnaps Thorne in order to force Bishop to complete the assassinations he asked for. The catch: all three must look like an accident. Therefore, Bishop straps on his hitman gear and travels the globe in order to take out three rival arms' dealers all the while trying to save his new girlfriend. It's all in the life of a mechanic.

Whereas the first Mechanic was a fairly gritty, serious, and violent action film, the second one is far more over the top, ridiculous, and colorful. Mechanic: Resurrection is also serious and violent, but in a more tongue in cheek kind of way. Whereas the first film mostly took place amidst dark cities, grungy bars, and tall skyscrapers, the sequel is an entirely different creature, as it is very brightly colored, and takes place almost exclusively amongst boats on water and sandy islands in the tropics. I should stress how tropical and aquatic this movie truly is, as it features not only boats, palm trees, oceans, and wet suits, but even pools, sharks, and submarines. I'm telling you, it's possibly the most overtly tropical and aquatic assassin movie ever made.

So right off the bat, the sequel is an entirely different creature, even though it shares the basic connective tissue of a master assassin who has homes and passports set up all over the globe. It's odd that Simon West directed the first one, which was more serious, as his ridiculous sensibilities from his work on Con Air would have been better fit for an unabashedly non-sensical sequel like this. Either way, the sequel is a noticeably lighter and funner affair, but still Rated R and with a very high body count.

Mechanic: Through the Looking Glass

Although the sequel is thoroughly entertaining, the first act is dreadfully boring, as it attempts to establish a believable relationship between Statham and Alba's characters before ripping them apart. I quickly became bored by the two's painfully un-romantic proceedings, although I did appreciate the presence of Hong Kong superstar Michelle Yeoh (Police Story 3) during this segment of the movie.

Once the film gets into its advertised plot, it becomes a blast to watch. The entire movie is just an excuse to showcase three separate assassinations that also need to appear as if they were accidents. The first assassination, which is set in a prison, could have been its own movie for goodness sakes. Not only does Bishop need to get into the prison, but he than needs to work his way into the accepting arms of his target, murder him, make it look like an accident, and than escape the prison while dodging sharks. And yet, this single assassination, which sounds like an episode to a television show or a movie of its own, is a tiny twenty minute segment of the film. I love it. The second assassination, which involves the advertised high rise pool, is probably the most ridiculous and enjoyable kill of the movie. If you've seen the trailers or even the poster, you know what happens. And the last, well, I dare not spoil what happens, but it involves an arms dealer played by Tommy Lee Jones, who was somehow convinced to participate in this movie for a mere five minutes.

In all honesty, Mechanic: Resurrection resembles the Hitman video game series more so than that franchise's own filmic adaptations, 2007's Hitman and 2015's Hitman: Agent 47. The film offers up several instances in which the mechanic extensively plans out his assassinations in order to make them look like accidents, the mechanic dons disguises and pretends to be someone else in order to gain access to certain areas, and sometimes busts out guns and goes to town on his armed foes. While the Hitman movies are overly concerned with garbage plots that barely incorporate the imagery and creative elements of their own source material, Mechanic: Resurrection actually offers up everything one would want from a Hitman movie, just with Jason Statham. He's also bald too.

That's not Jones' wardrobe. He probably just strolled out of his trailer.

Statham is great as always in the film, almost being too good for the material. His dedication to B-movie craft will always earn him my love and adoration. Veteran actors Yeoh and Jones are honestly dignified cameos within the story, but add major A-credibility to a silly B-movie of this nature. And poor Jessica Alba, who has never been a great actress, is completely useless here, as both an actress and as a damsel in distress character. As to why she is a marketable name actress, I will never know. The cast is commendable, but it's clear that Statham had to do all of the heavy lifting and carry the entire film on his shoulders, which he successfully does.

Director Dennis Gansel rightfully understands the tone of his project, but woefully fails to know where to place the camera at any moment, especially during action sequences. Gansel's shooting style could best be described as claustrophobic, as he shoves his camera right up into the faces of his actors during dialog scenes and action sequences. It's a shame that the camera work is so terribly poor during the plentiful shootouts and fist fights, because the choreography and stunt work is otherwise great.

There's a fantastic stunt during the final shootout where Statham leaps into a steel enforced boat hanging by wires, shoots one of the wires, and than holds onto the boat and shoots at his enemies while it swings around. It's great stuff. Unfortunately, the editing of the film is also very poor, opting to cut based on the real time of the events instead of what could be more visually cohesive. An instance where Statham slams a henchman's head into a table flies by so fast that you won't be able to recall how it visually occurred as your mind is too busy focusing on the next physical beat down. Fight scenes shouldn't be a chore to visually understand, they should be comprehensible and fun to watch. Let this be a lesson to Gansel in case he tackles another action movie, as he understands how to craft a ridiculous and tongue in cheek action fest quite well.

Last but not least, Mechanic: Resurrection demonstrates the technical woes of many Millenium Films, in that its green screens and computer generated effects are down right laughable. While I love mid budget films like this, the limitations of the budget for a film of this scope are very apparent, especially during a scene where Statham rides an inflatable boat across ocean in extreme close up with digital water splashes all around him. Whenever actors walk into a big room, or jump off a cliff, or fall off of a building, it's always an obvious digital effect, and it made me chuckle quite a few times. If Millenium would just craft smaller scaled films that don't try to desperately be blockbusters, than the technical limitations wouldn't be as apparent. But alas, they want mid budget blockbusters, and crappy green screens and laugh out loud effects are going to keep plaguing the larger scaled moments of their films until they learn differently. 

More of this please, and less cliff diving.

Mechanic: Resurrection is so different from its predecessor that one could easily skip the dour woes of the remake and skip ahead to this joyously and unabashedly silly sequel. Not only is the tone different, but one honestly doesn't need to know much about the events of the previous film in order to understand this one. Arthur Bishop is an assassin, plain and simple. That's all you need to know. While the sequel may give genre fans beat downs, shootouts, and over the top kills galore, those in search of a dramatically compelling or skillfully told revenge story will be out of luck. Regardless, Statham fans, like myself, will turn out no matter what. If anything, I could say that I am thankful that this was released by a semi-major studio on the big screen in theaters, as films of this nature are typically doomed to the direct to video market now. It's far from commendable, and accidentally hilarious in parts, but Mechanic: Resurrection is undeniably entertaining and rarely dull for a mid-budget genre picture of its nature. And for that, it gets a recommendation from me.

Rating: 6/10 - Statham's fearless presence, Gansel's control of tone, and fun but technically shoddy action sequences make this unnecessary sequel one of the year's most entertaining action films.