Director: Dennis Gansel.
Starring: Jason Statham, Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Sam Hazeldine.
German film maker Dennis Gansel takes over from Simon West (Con Air, Expendables 2) filming the sequel to a remake, The Mechanic. Jason Statham returns as Arthur Bishop with that awful husky voice. Yes, it's a London accent and not the pretend American one, but it grates on me. What makes it worse is that the bad guy pulling the strings (Sam Hazeldine) is also an East End orphan with the same husky voice which actually gives the film an English dubbed feel. It's a step backwards story wise as the original plot was actually quite good. Just lacking some John Woo emotional turmoil as the basis of the first was very much the relationship battlefield. This one just becomes a mess, like the studios were just looking for any reason to bring Bishop out of hiding. It doesn't make sense character wise, but I could be wrong. I thought Bishop, especially the Bronson original was a cold-hearted assassin, a loner and would kill his own friend, which they both did. So, Statham falling in love with Alba whilst knowing it's just a ploy to get him to knock off a few major arms dealers just doesn't make any sense. I think the studios must have listened to Statham fans, like myself, with regards to fight scenes. As this is certainly was an improvement on the first, knowing Statham's martial arts capabilities. The film opens well with a good choreographed punch-up and whilst going a little classic James Bond cheesy I was hoping the film was going to carry on like it. But no, instead, Bishop goes agent 47 with MacGyver style precision. The final fight wasn't so bad but everything else in the middle was just mediocre. It's bad acting all round, Jessica Alba was not convincing at all, and though she flaunts off her body, it's the usual Alba we all know. I have no idea what Malaysian super-star Michelle Yeoh was doing there, though, not actually a trained martial artist she is incredibly talented, yet she did little else apart from provide a story anchor. I'm use to seeing Tommy Lee Jones pop up for these smaller, out of character roles, but surely it would have made more sense to sack both Jones and Yeoh, getting smaller stars for the smaller roles and get a badder bad guy. Hell, Jones could have done it! I think where it attempted to be clever just made it dumber, unrealistic and clichéd. It was borderline spoof comedy with the amount of passports, safe houses and secret caches Bishop had. I was actually hoping for a double cross like the first but no, just Bishop being sneaky again. Even from the poster, I just see Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell. I'm a Statham fan and I tried my best to not take this too seriously, but unfortunately I don't think anyone behind the movie took it seriously either which is a shame as the Bishop character, like The Jackal, is a great character
Running Time: 5
The Cast: 4
Performance: 4
Direction: 5
Story: 2
Script: 2
Creativity: 4
Soundtrack: 3
Job Description: 1
The Extra Bonus Point: 0
30% 3/10
