The Mechanic

Overview

Seasoned hitman Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) sets out to avenge the brutal murder of his mentor, Harry (Donald Sutherland), and finds himself joined by Harry's vengeful son (Ben Foster), who is eager to follow in his late father's footsteps, in this remake of the 1972 action thriller starring Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent. Harry taught Arthur how to be a detached killer who always hits his mark. Now Harry is gone, and for the first time in Arthur's career it's about to get personal. As lone-wolf assassin Arthur prepares to hunt down Harry's killers, he is approached by his fallen mentor's vengeful son, Steve, who is eager to take up the lethal tools of his father's trade. Unadept at working with a partner yet compelled to help Steve carry on the family tradition, Arthur agrees to take him on as a prot?g?. Later, the duo begins to methodically eliminate their targets, forging a partnership born of blood with each new hit. The closer Arthur and Steve get to the name at the top of their list, however, the more apparent it becomes that his job will be anything but business as usual.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/17/2011
UPC:	0043396379411
Original Release:	2011
Rating:	R
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mini Anden	Sarah
James Logan	Jorge Lara
Eddie J. Fernandez	Lara's Guard,Actor
Joshua Bridgewater	Car Jacker
Joel Davis	Actor
Mark Nutter	Actor
Ardy Brent Carlson	Bell Hop
Lara Grice	Mrs. Finch
Lance E. Nichols	Henry
Ada Michelle Loridans	Finch's Daughter
Dawn Neufeld	News Reporter #1
David Leitch	Sebastian
Donald	Actor
LaTeace Towns-Cuellar	Lara's Girl #2
Paul Abraham	Shuttle Driver
David Dahlgren	Dr. X
William Scharpf	Dean's Driver,Dean's Driver
John "Spud" McConnell	Vaughn
Mark Anthony Nutter	Mr. Finch
Linzzi Zaorski	Jazz Club Singer
Molly Rosenblatt	News Reporter #2
John Teague	Ney
Jennifer Ortega	Lara's Girl #1
Stuart Greer	Ralph
Kasia Wolejnio	Maria
Larrel France	Vaughn's Intern
Danny Cosmo	Peasant
Derek Schreck	Security Guard
Choop	"Arthur" the Dog
Jeffrey Chase	Actor

Technical Credits

Richard Wenk

Lewis John Carlino

Karl Gajdusek

Simon West	Director
David Winkler	Director,Producer,Producer,Executive Producer
William Chartoff	Producer,Producer,Executive Producer
Rene Besson	Producer
Matthew F. Leonetti Jr.	Producer
Jib Polhemus	Producer
Danny Lerner	Executive Producer
Marcy Drogin	Executive Producer
Richard Wenk	Screenwriter
Lewis John Carlino	Screenwriter
Lara Dale	Sound Effects
Richard J. Ball, Jr.	Key Grip
Jeffrey Haupt	Sound Mixer
Karl Gajdusek	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

At this point, while the legendary string of '80s testosterone-fueled action heroes (Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Norris) aren't quite ready to hang it up, none of them can carry an action movie like Jason Statham. Between the joyously over-the-top Crank films, the slick Transporter series, his collaborations with director Guy Ritchie, and interesting detours like The Italian Job and The Bank Job, Statham has proven to be a steel-eyed, hard-muscled man's man with a sharp sense of humor -- he's even capable of vulnerability. He's never played against type, but he's found plenty of subtle variations on that type. And, to its great benefit, The Mechanic utilizes all his skills. Statham plays Arthur Bishop, a "fixer" for a powerful yet shady corporation who specializes in killing people with efficiency and/or style -- whatever best serves his boss' needs. Arthur's absolute mastery of this talent -- as well as his sculpted torso and arms -- is revealed in the opening, where he assassinates a Columbian tycoon in the man's swimming pool. Of course a man with Arthur's career lives by a code, and his only loyalty is to Harry (Donald Sutherland), his mentor in the corporation. But when Bishop learns that Harry is the company's next target, business is business. Enter Ben Foster as Harry's ne'er-do-well, heavy-drinking son, Steve. With his father out of the picture, Steve wants Arthur to train him to become a mechanic as well. Together, they plot revenge on Harry's killer, but because Steve suspects Arthur might have pulled the trigger himself, the bonds of trust between the two might be imaginary. The best thing about The Mechanic is the debt it owes to crime films from the early '70s. It's a remake of a Charles Bronson movie, and it has the patient rhythms and the existential dread of such influential masterworks as Point Blank. Statham is one of the few stars around who can make it seem that still waters run deep inside a person who, by all outside appearances, is a cold-blooded killer. And since the tight screenplay (the movie clocks in at under 90 minutes, minus the closing credits) keeps him at the center of just about every scene, we cheer consistently for his meticulous mastery of every situation -- including some improvised torture involving a garbage disposal and a young woman's hand. As much as this is Statham's film, Ben Foster becomes a welcome complement. He's done really strong dramatic work on Six Feet Under, and in The Messenger, but here Foster's resemblance to a young Sean Penn helps make Steve a plausible loose cannon -- intense, reckless, and unpredictable. The term chemistry usually gets thrown around in romantic comedies, but chemistry is exactly what he and Statham have. Not Newman/Redford chemistry, but certainly enough to keep this hard-hitting, entertaining action film from dragging. Director Simon West does a solid job pacing the movie -- he makes you wait for the big action set pieces in order to build anticipation, and while too much of the hand-to-hand fight sequences are edited beyond the point of comprehension, these scenes are also brief enough that we don't lose interest. The down-and-dirty milieu of The Mechanic is most certainly a man's world. Thankfully Statham, the reigning king of guy cinema, is at its center.