Post by stefancrosscoe on Jan 14, 2018 13:56:10 GMT
Mechanic: Resurrection (2016)
Love the original one with Charles Bronson, and never bothered to see the "remake" that was released a couple of years ago, however I somehow ended up watching this one last night and, well, it was pretty much how I thought it would end up.
There is a lot of action going on, no question about that. From the very start Jason Statham takes out an small army with absolute no problem, in fact he almost looks bored out of his mind doing so, like the guy was just taking the shit ouf of em' in his sleep or something.
Also to be noted, I highly doubt one have to see the one from 2011 to "get" the "deep" character that is the 2016 version of hitman Arthur Bishop.
Ayway, it does not take that long before our hero have his hands full with the lovely Jessica Alba, who almost falls from the skies right into his arms after Bishop comes to her rescue from some abusive asshole, and it only takes a couple of minutes and they act like they have known each other for their entire lives, while sadly the far more talented Michelle Yeoh are pretty much is kept in the background, showing up here and there throughout the film but have very little to work with.
The postive things about this film is that it is enjoyable, dumb and silly action, it is what it is and nothing more or less. The locations and scenery are most of the times stunning and I gotta give Statham some credit, he does his job very well and is not a bad action actor, but the film pretty much sums up a lot of what I dislike about modern action and movies in general:
- The plot is basically paperthin, just as with the main characters. There are no time for a build up, and when it tries to do that the cheap and crappy editing seems more like somebody just pushed the forward button to speed things up and this forward button seems to be used rather frequently in this film, specially during the fight sequences, which is almost as annoying and lame as the horror that is the shaky cam.
- The main hero is far too dominating in every fight, I mean Statham takes out an entire army within a few seconds, where guys like Sly, Clint, Bronson and Arnie in their prime often had trouble now and then, even in ridiculous over-the-top epics like Commando or in many of the Rambo sequels, the hero would break a sweat and fight for his life, while in Mechanic Resurrection you never once feel that the hero is in any dangerous or life threating situation, even though of course they try to make it look like it, but it fails 10 out of 10 times over. And in the end this film along with so many other modern action movies look and feel more like a random video game than an actual action film, which is rather sad. I can re-watch almost every kill in Death Wish 3 or Commando and laugh at every new thing I end up discovering or re-discovering. The bad guys that got killed (a lot of) often were hilarious or very memorable, even if they had just 3-5 second on screen, it could be laughable scream, or the way they fell backward or forwards, but in many of todays action films they are just these faceless "robots" that have absolute none of that "classic" piss ant soldier style to them, they are just there and the next moment they are gone.
- And now onto the real big problem, not just in this film but again, with far too many action films of the last few years. The main, big bad villain is a complete joke. Talk about whimpy looking "baddie". We see Statham destroy 20-30 soldiers with absolute ease, then this sleazy scumbag who looks like some random business man thinks he can just put a knife to Alba's throat and talk some shit, that is gonna make him a fearsome foe? And where the hell is the classic henchmen? But I guess the closest we came to that was that hot chick in the beginning.
Ayway, I guess it sounds like I hate the film, which I did not. It was 90 minutes of silly action and a very forgettable but somehow entertaing plot, see once, then never again type of movie. Tommy Lee Jones arrives later on, and I kind of wished he would have not just more screentime but that he was the main villain, of course it would probably not save the film from mediocrity but it would help it when it comes to the entertainment section.
Take away Alba and Lee Jones and this is not a very good film, Statham does lots of great and impressive fight and action scenes/stunts but he just do not have the "personality" to lead a film alone and I have still not seen an action film of his that I have rated (with him the main lead) a rating higher than 5/10, but then again I have not seen that many, nor do I think I will either.
This was my little "rant" but again I did not hate the film and in fact as saturday entertainment, it was ok and I end up with a very generous final rating much because of Alba and Lee Jones who should have gotten far more to work with along with Michelle Yeoh:
5,5/10
Love the original one with Charles Bronson, and never bothered to see the "remake" that was released a couple of years ago, however I somehow ended up watching this one last night and, well, it was pretty much how I thought it would end up.
There is a lot of action going on, no question about that. From the very start Jason Statham takes out an small army with absolute no problem, in fact he almost looks bored out of his mind doing so, like the guy was just taking the shit ouf of em' in his sleep or something.
Also to be noted, I highly doubt one have to see the one from 2011 to "get" the "deep" character that is the 2016 version of hitman Arthur Bishop.
Ayway, it does not take that long before our hero have his hands full with the lovely Jessica Alba, who almost falls from the skies right into his arms after Bishop comes to her rescue from some abusive asshole, and it only takes a couple of minutes and they act like they have known each other for their entire lives, while sadly the far more talented Michelle Yeoh are pretty much is kept in the background, showing up here and there throughout the film but have very little to work with.
The postive things about this film is that it is enjoyable, dumb and silly action, it is what it is and nothing more or less. The locations and scenery are most of the times stunning and I gotta give Statham some credit, he does his job very well and is not a bad action actor, but the film pretty much sums up a lot of what I dislike about modern action and movies in general:
- The plot is basically paperthin, just as with the main characters. There are no time for a build up, and when it tries to do that the cheap and crappy editing seems more like somebody just pushed the forward button to speed things up and this forward button seems to be used rather frequently in this film, specially during the fight sequences, which is almost as annoying and lame as the horror that is the shaky cam.
- The main hero is far too dominating in every fight, I mean Statham takes out an entire army within a few seconds, where guys like Sly, Clint, Bronson and Arnie in their prime often had trouble now and then, even in ridiculous over-the-top epics like Commando or in many of the Rambo sequels, the hero would break a sweat and fight for his life, while in Mechanic Resurrection you never once feel that the hero is in any dangerous or life threating situation, even though of course they try to make it look like it, but it fails 10 out of 10 times over. And in the end this film along with so many other modern action movies look and feel more like a random video game than an actual action film, which is rather sad. I can re-watch almost every kill in Death Wish 3 or Commando and laugh at every new thing I end up discovering or re-discovering. The bad guys that got killed (a lot of) often were hilarious or very memorable, even if they had just 3-5 second on screen, it could be laughable scream, or the way they fell backward or forwards, but in many of todays action films they are just these faceless "robots" that have absolute none of that "classic" piss ant soldier style to them, they are just there and the next moment they are gone.
- And now onto the real big problem, not just in this film but again, with far too many action films of the last few years. The main, big bad villain is a complete joke. Talk about whimpy looking "baddie". We see Statham destroy 20-30 soldiers with absolute ease, then this sleazy scumbag who looks like some random business man thinks he can just put a knife to Alba's throat and talk some shit, that is gonna make him a fearsome foe? And where the hell is the classic henchmen? But I guess the closest we came to that was that hot chick in the beginning.
Ayway, I guess it sounds like I hate the film, which I did not. It was 90 minutes of silly action and a very forgettable but somehow entertaing plot, see once, then never again type of movie. Tommy Lee Jones arrives later on, and I kind of wished he would have not just more screentime but that he was the main villain, of course it would probably not save the film from mediocrity but it would help it when it comes to the entertainment section.
Take away Alba and Lee Jones and this is not a very good film, Statham does lots of great and impressive fight and action scenes/stunts but he just do not have the "personality" to lead a film alone and I have still not seen an action film of his that I have rated (with him the main lead) a rating higher than 5/10, but then again I have not seen that many, nor do I think I will either.
This was my little "rant" but again I did not hate the film and in fact as saturday entertainment, it was ok and I end up with a very generous final rating much because of Alba and Lee Jones who should have gotten far more to work with along with Michelle Yeoh:
5,5/10