A review by Nalini Haynes
The Mechanic, Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham), faked his own death in the previous Mechanic movie (that I haven’t seen). It sounds like a splodey fest where he rescued Mei (Michelle Yeoh), who now acts as caretaker for Bishop’s hut in a remote tropical island visited only by locals and tourists. And bad guys.
I haven’t seen the first movie and you don’t need to see it to make sense of this one. Bishop used to murder people and he tried to get out of that game then faked his death to live for movie two.
In Mechanic Resurrection, bad guy tries to recruit Bishop so Bishop kills the messengers and escapes to the remote tropical island. Bad guy sends pretty girl to trap Bishop.
Pretty girl is Gina (Jessica Alba) who pretends to be in an abusive relationship to gain Bishop’s sympathy only the abuser gets carried away and dead. Cue brief romance between Bishop and Gina lasting a day or two leading to sexytimes. FYI we see more skin on the beach when they’re in their bathers/swimmers/swimming costumes/cossies (pick one).
During this day or two of romance Bishop falls head over heels in love with Gina because plot. So when bad guy kidnaps her, Bishop fakes deaths on command just like before. Well, kinda. He knows the bad guy will probably turn on them both and try to kill them at the end so he’s trying to outsmart everyone.
And, conveniently, the bad guy’s targets are rapists and drug lords so we’re not sad to see them getting their just desserts.
Mechanic Resurrection actually passes the Bechdel Test — surprise, surprise — because Mei and Gina talk to each other. WithOUT a man present and not just about men.
Mei and Bishop judge domestic violence as bad and a reason to take action to protect the victim. You’d almost call this a feminist action flick although the women don’t get a huge amount of screen time. Also, Gina is ex-military. Usually she’s helpless but, in at least one scene, she kicks ass. However, in others, she’s just a piece of ass.
Recently I saw man-fanciers bitching about Jason Statham not taking his shirt off in a movie (“what’s the point of watching it?”); well, they weren’t talking about Mechanic Resurrection. Statham has lots of shirt-free time, taking it off, putting it on, walking around bare chested and bare backed. Not THAT kind of bare-backed. The kind where you see his well-defined body strolling away.
Overall, Mechanic Resurrection is intense and splodey with flavours of Macgyver, Bourne and Bond but low on logic. I enjoyed it and recommend as a fun action movie. And Tommy Lee Jones is a treat.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Director: Dennis Gansel
Writers: Philip Shelby, Tony Mosher, Lewis John Carlino, Rachel Long, Philip Shelby, Brian Pittman
Stars: Jason Statham, Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones
Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes
