The Mechanic

Dir: Simon West

2011

***

I'm not sure why anyone would want to remake such a film as The Mechanic really as the original is so 70s cool, anything else would be a soulless imitation. Simon West's remake is indeed a soulless imitation but it isn't without merit. It's hard to see it as anything other than a Transporter spin-off, given that Jason Statham pretty much plays the same sort of character. He may not have been an assassin in the Transporter movies but he still lived a life of solitude and luxury. In many respects Transporter was a loose remake of The Mechanic, so it comes full circle, maybe another actor would have been less distracting but I love Jason Statham, we all love Jason Statham, and he is perfect in the role. You can't really compare Statham and Charles Bronson and I'm not going to attempt to, both are great and both play a good Arthur Bishop. I think I was more concerned over the character of Steve McKenna, as I have always loved Jan-Michael Vincent's performance, being a huge Airwolf fan and all but thankfully Ben Foster puts in a brilliant performance, in a way that only he could. The adaption is pretty faithful to the original, except for a slight change towards the end. The original beats the remake hands down in this respect but I was entertained throughout. I'm no big Simon West fan but the man can do action and in terms of action movies he's up there as one of the best. Statham has made so many other more original action thrillers though and most of them are pretty good, time to stop with the remakes I think.