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The Mechanic (2011)

Director: Simon West

Time Out rating

Average user rating

9 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

You could edit snippets from any of Jason Statham’s hard-nut capers into one long sequence and not notice the joins. The same goes for this latest round of degeneracy – a remake of Michael Winner’s awful 1972 film – in which he plays a hitman (surprise!) of such expert precision that he leaves no evidence of his kills. As in the original, which starred Charles Bronson, Arthur Bishop (Statham) is a skilful, classical-music-loving, superhuman contract killer hired by his boss to off old friend Harry (Donald Sutherland, coasting). At which point Harry’s young hitman-wannabe son Steve (Ben Foster, not bad) enters the frame and pleads with Arthur to coach him in the ways of the modern assassin – unaware that Arthur is his father’s killer – and so we launch into an episodic spate of contrived and implausible hits. With its unrelenting violence and obligatory bonking sessions, this is one for avid ‘Stath’ fans only.

Author: Derek Adams

Time Out London Issue 2110: 27 Jan – 2 Feb, 2011

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User reviews of this film

ED said...

Posted on Apr 27 2011 14:43 A slight improvement on DEATH RACE & the TRANSPORTER trilogy, file this along with his safer movies like THE BANK JOB. Ben Foster brings an interesting dynamic to the plot as the apprentice hitman, but besides that, this is very predictable, solid fare. Shame the script isn't too sharp.
Off the point slightly but notice how eachtime Jase puts a record one it has a different sleeve and different coloutr label, but it;s the same piece of music? Conitunuity or he's got a massive record colelction made up of one song!

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nidgebee said...

Posted on Feb 14 2011 21:35 What a great film.if you like statham its a must.Can`t believe some of the previous comments about this film,perhaps they were watching another film and got confused.Dont take their advice pop down and Vue it for yourself.

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Feb 10 2011 21:49 Crisp, non stop action and such nonsense. The best Stratham so far? Well, yes but that's no deal breaker. Did I hold back a toilet trip as I didn't want to miss a poxy thing? Yep! Relax, you don't ALWAYS have to go along with the hipsters! 6/10 (if it was French, T.O would agree!)

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roger rabbit said...

Posted on Feb 07 2011 19:16 Christ this is so bad its begger's belief !!!!Dont waste your money -yet anonther piss poor remake of a far better movie which should be left

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Marsellus said...

Posted on Feb 07 2011 12:00 Watched this the other night because a friend and I turned up too late to watch The Fighter. I knew we would be disappointed - but I wasn't as utterly disappointed as I expected to be. First off, this is one of Statham's best films. It has a better plot and is far less stupid than the Transporter films. That's about it. Ben Foster is not bad in his young-psycho kind of role. The sex-scenes and romantic sub-plots go absolutely nowhere. It's about as good as the original - but that was shit as well.

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sango said...

Posted on Feb 06 2011 22:15 Put it simply... Not very good. They should have made it 18 certificate. More action shots would have made it good. Sex shots spoiled the film as it was so CRAP. ITS JUST A ANOTHER MURDER FILM WITH fight scenes!!!! Rubbish

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TRUTHTELLER. said...

Posted on Feb 06 2011 16:45 This is an excellent movie and is highly entertaining.
It's no chick flick since it's non stop action and pretty violent.
The film has solid performances and really great and tight direction.

Dan Collins should go look for a musical somewhere because this is a highly entertaining shoot 'em/blow 'm upmovie.
You are also apparently an expert on what teenage boys in America do Dan,maybe you should see someone about that.
Think Bruce Willis. If you like Bruce, you'll like this movie.
I was suprised when I entered the theatre to see so many people in there given the review but I know why now.

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John said...

Posted on Jan 29 2011 12:21 Sounds like a great action movie to me. I can't wait to see it, a great B-movie. I enjoyed many Charles Bronson movies in my youth, and this improves over the original.

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Dan Collins said...

Posted on Jan 26 2011 04:19 The most awful movie since "Severance" of 2007. Maybe not in the UK but U.S. teenage boys love this stuff, all the better to rush to the gun store when they turn 21. My rating is zero but I don't know whether your system will record that.

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