“The Mechanic" Blu-Ray Review - Written by Anthony T

Plot Synopsis:

“The Mechanic" is a remake of a 1972 film, which was directed by Michael Winner (Death Wish) and starring Charles Bronson (The Dirty Dozen, Death Wish), Jan Michael Vincent (Dammation Alley) and Keenan Wynn (Dr. Strangelove).

The updated version follows a hitman (Jason Statham), who has a talent for eliminating targets cleanly and is consider the best in the business. One day, his mentor (Donald Sutherland) and friend is found murdered. This leads him on a mission to get revenge on those who ordered the hit. Everything becomes complicated, when his mentor’s son (Ben Foster) wants to exacts the same revenge on those people. Soon. deception with each other surfaces and threatens both of their lives in this remake of the 1972 classic action film.

Film Review

Going into this film, I didn’t see the original, but I still was expecting a film that would have action and intense sequence. The stuff that is accustomed to a Jason Staham film. Surprisingly this wasn’t the film that I expected to see, as this didn’t have the over the top action sequences that I expected. Instead, this film is filled with character development and good performances.

Director Simon West does a very good job not making the film filled with action sequences. One of the things that he does well was the way that this film was shot. This film does feel like a seventies action film with non action sequences that are drawn out. It was surprising to see that, but it helps the tone of the film. Another thing that West does very well, he gets good performances from Jason Staham and Ben Foster. The chemistry between the two was perfect.The performances and tone of each of the characters were directed well enough that the characters gelled on the screen. There were scenes that it was desperately needed, since most of the action takes in the second half of the film. If Staham and Foster didn’t turn good performances, this film would’ve been disappointing. It’s a credit to West’s direction that the performance are good enough to make it entertaining and forget about your need for exciting action.

The screenplay for this remake was written by Richard Wenk and Lewis John Carlino. For the most part, I liked how they decided to make the focus of the film be about the two lead characters, instead of making it about the action sequences. This could have easily gone that route, but the action sequences don’t come until the last third of the film. It‘s a good thing, because it sets the film’s dark tone and lets the writers focus on their student/mentor relationship which leads for some good dialogue scenes between the two leads. If there was one thing that surprised me about the screenplay, it was the fact that the ending catches you somewhat off guard. In the last scenes of this film, I truly thought the opposite was going to happen, which I won‘t talk about because it would spoil it. But to the credit of the writers, they did a very job in throwing a little twist to the ending. It made this film more enjoyable for me and made me like this screenplay a little more.

Blu-ray Extras

I truly wished, there was more content on the production of this film. First on the this disc, “Tools of the Trade” featurette. It’s a seven and half minute featurette that goes into the most into the stunts. There is a minute or two that goes into the production, but this primarily felt like a behind the scenes of various stunts that take place in the film. I was hoping for some production information here, but sadly there is very little.

Next on the disc is ten minutes of deleted and extended scenes. After that, it’s just trailers for upcoming Sony releases and movie IQ that give you facts about the production,

I would have liked it, if there some production stories or an audio commentary from the cast and director. Sadly, there seems to be none of that here on this blu-ray.


Summary

While this film isn’t going win awards, this is an entertaining action film, as Staham and Forster carry this film through their performances. I just wished that the Blu-ray had more extras then the little that it has.

Review Rating: Three and a half stars.

Blu-ray Extras: One Star