Review: Mechanic: Resurrection

Contract killer Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is retired, but after sunning it up for a while with the lovely Gina (Jessica Alba) at a resort in Thailand, he’s blackmailed into using his murder-y skills to help nasty British arms dealer Crain (Sam Hazeldine) rub out his enemies and make it look like an accident. Having kidnapped Gina, Crain wants Bishop to kill an Australian human trafficker (the not remotely Australian Toby Eddington), an imprisoned African warlord (Femi Elufowoju Jr), and eventually an American-born arms dealer in Bulgaria (Tommy Lee Jones!). Michelle Yeoh turns up briefly as a Thai beach resort owner and friend of Bishop’s.

Jason Statham’s “The Mechanic” was a rare case of a remake being better than the original. The 1972 Charles Bronson flick had a much better ending, but the Statham-led remake was enjoyable stuff for what it was trying to be, outside of a truly disheartening ending (Which differed in a small but significant way from the original). This 2016 sequel to the remake from director Dennis Gansel (the interesting German vampire flick “We Are the Night”) and screenwriters Philip Shelby (“Survivor”, a frustrating thriller with Milla Jovovich and Pierce Brosnan) and Tony Mosher (his first motion picture screenwriting effort) isn’t anywhere near up to snuff. Weaker than both previous films, it starts off rather well in theory, with some attempt at character investment. However, you soon realise that the film’s going nowhere very achingly slowly so that the time devoted to the character stuff ends up working against what should at the end of the day have been a typical Jason Statham vehicle. The previous film certainly was, and apparently Statham’s reason for doing this sequel was as a change of pace from the silly comedies he had been doing prior. However, because of the wonky structure, the film never gets off the ground as an action-thriller. Instead, for far too long it plays like anything but a “Mechanic” film.

A brutal early skirmish shows Statham in vintage ‘not fucking around’ form, but a very 70s HK action movie hang-gliding bit afterwards is an unfortunately dopey way to end it. On the plus side, Jessica Alba gives one of her best performances, though I still say she peaked on TV’s “Dark Angel”. It’s certainly the best she’s been cast in a long while, though in 2016 she’s still refusing to nude-up which results in her having sex in her bra. Y’know, like how no one on Earth ever does. Sorry, but I’ll keep bringing it up until either she nudes up or she stops taking on roles that clearly require nudity. It’s not me being crass (her body is her own and she can do with it as she pleases), it’s me being unnecessarily distracted by stuff I shouldn’t be noticing. Still, Alba’s performance is the best thing in the entire film.

However, after 25 minutes the only similarities to the first film are the same basic Jason Statham performance and explosions. It doesn’t feel like the same character or the same world. I mean, isn’t this meant to be an assassin flick? 30 minutes and the film pretty much stopped dead for me. The action is good, but two action scenes in 30 minutes in unacceptable for a Jason Statham action movie. Say what you will about Simon West (who directed the highly entertaining and underrated “Con Air”), but at least he didn’t fuck around in the previous film and got right to it. It was nice to see Statham getting to show off his diving skills at one point, though. Also not helping things is the thoroughly boring, all-purpose British bad guy performance by tedious Sean Bean wannabe Sam Hazeldine. I’ve never seen the bloke before, but he’s incredibly cut-rate and completely unthreatening. Full credit though, at least once he turns up the film starts to become somewhat more in line with what we know the Statham character and world to be about. Meanwhile, it’s always great to see the underrated Michelle Yeoh, but like most of her Hollywood career, the film barely uses her. You won’t really see her once the plot is underway, I’m afraid. Why the film spends so much time with characters you’ll barely see in the second half is beyond me. It’s a real shame that Yeoh’s international career got off to such a late start, she’s definitely multi-talented and charismatic. Another downer is the shaky camerawork of Daniel Gottschalk (“The Fourth State”, from the same director), who has the easy task of filming some very scenic locations but otherwise cocks things up with the visual instability.

Things do pick up in the second half, with a particularly excellent climbing scene allegedly set in Sydney involving a truly ridiculous-looking building fitted with a swimming pool in a location surely no one would want one. It results in a very creative death scene, the whole set-piece is easily the highlight of the film aside from Alba’s performance. It’s certainly the closest thing to being “Mechanic”-like in the film. However, this Aussie was quick to notice that the Aussie accents for this section of the film sounded a tad Seth Effriken. In fact, the actors in question were British. Either way, they certainly weren’t convincing. It makes me wonder what, beyond a shot or two of some very famous landmarks, was actually filmed in Australia (IMDb says the skyscraper scene was filmed in Sydney, so it makes one wonder why some poms were flown in to play locals. We have no shortage of actors here). It’s fun at times to watch Statham do Statham things here in the second half, but for me it was too late. The action has such a snap to it that it’s baffling how dire the pacing of the film is overall. Meanwhile, Academy Award-winner and all-round sunny publicity hound Tommy Lee Jones turns up (too) late playing an arms dealer in Bulgaria. He gives a performance to match the quality of a made-in-Bulgaria flick, though at least his character adds a new wrinkle to the story. Jones himself adds very little beyond an embarrassing soul patch.

Pretty lousy follow-up spends too much time trying to be something other than what the previous film made work. It results in a good performance by Jessica Alba, but 40 minutes of mostly tedium before it starts to resemble a “Mechanic” film. By then it’s too late, which is a shame because the action is perfectly fine. Terrible villainy doesn’t help, either. I felt quite letdown by this one, it’s really lethargic. 

Rating: D+