The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Given the fact
that The Mechanic is actually a remake of Charles Bronson’s original
film from 1972, it’s not fair to compare the two films as this version is quite
different despite having the same plot.

Arthur Bishop
(Statham) is a professional hit-man who takes orders to eliminate people
while making their deaths look like an accident. One day, he discovers that his
assignment is to kill his own mentor and old friend Harry (Sutherland); and he
can’t refuse to because they will simply send someone else instead. Later on,
he meets Steve (Foster), Harry’s son, who’s furious about his father’s death.
Harry wants Bishop to teach him everything that he knows about his business so that
Harry can track down his father’s killer to seek revenge.

The story
works well as a thriller, but not as an action film, which is the major
downfall of The Mechanic. After a solid start, the film’s second half
takes the usual Hollywood U-turn to a typical, lame action film with nothing
new to offer.

Statham’s
acting abilities are definitely not the real showcase in The Mechanic.
There’s really not the slightest difference between his character here and his role
in The Transporter series. All in all, Statham is playing Statham, which
isn’t necessarily a bad thing; audiences tend to accept him as the believable
tough guy.

Foster’s role
as Harry’s son is also a solid casting choice. He succeeds at making you feel
his pain and anger as well as his sinister creepiness.

Violence and sex
are the main words that give a film an R-rating, i.e. restricted to adult
audiences only. The Mechanic has both, but the version shown in Egyptian
cinemas only contains the violence, of course. The Mechanic has more violence than actual action, which is kind of a let-down. Bearing in mind that
this is a Statham vehicle, audience may expect this film to be another Transporter
sequel; just under a
different title.

The only
remarkable action sequence – where Statham and Foster are both sliding down the
roof of a very tall building – is a direct rip-off from Jackie Chan’s New Police Story in 2004. It’s never a
good sign when they start borrowing ideas from other films. Does this mean it’s
bad? Absolutely not! The Mechanic has
action, lots of it; but we’ve seen it all before.

The action is
simply done with no brains attached. It goes like this…shoot ’em up, blow ’em
up, wrap it up and CUT! This may have you wondering if director Simon
West had a few drinks with Transformers
director Michael Bay before they started filming The Mechanic.

The Mechanic is yet another action vehicle that features one of the best action stars
out there, but with poor direction in general. Real die-hard action fans will
probably be disappointed with this film.