Posts Tagged ‘action flick’

The latest Jason Statham action movie, The Mechanic, is a solid action flick that suffers from one major Fridge Pipe moment.

On my entirely personal measurement system, The Statham Scale (where Crank is 1 and The Bank Job is a 10) I’d say The Mechanic was a 7 (so just below The Transporter). Personally I prefered it to The Expendables.

The Mechanic opens with a nice teaser that sets up Statham’s character, Arthur Bishop, as an efficient, cold killer who is a very cool customer.  Where Luc Besson classic “cleaner” Léon delivers the phone in the opening sequence after bumping off all the body guards Wenk and Carlino’s “mechanic” makes it look like an accident under the body guards noses and doesn’t fire a shot.

It then spends a bit of time setting up that Bishop is a loaner with few attachments to the world other than Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland).  Like The American last year he turns to a prostitute but unlike Clooney’s character he really doesn’t seem to be attached to her emotionally.  We learn he lives alone in a designer house somewhere in the Mississippi Bayou that he travels to by boat.  The house is immaculate with a top of the range record player and a secret room for keeping assassin stuff in.

During this part of the film we get to see Sutherland and Statham together.  These are some of the better parts of the film.  Sutherland’s part could have been played by plenty of actors but he brings an extra something too it.  He also raises Statham acting.  So it’s a shame that he’s going to suffer an early demise here as he did in the 2003 movie The Italian Job (a film that would have probably done better here with a different name).

After that we have a well executed slow sequence where Bishop takes Harry’s errant son Steve McKenna (Ben Foster) under his wing.  Pretty soon he’s teaching him to be a hit man – much like Léon teaches Mathilda.  This allows a few action sequences to be dropped in to build up the pace again.  Then we get a full blown assassination that goes pear shaped allowing the guns to come out for a bigger set piece.

Now we hit one of the moments in the plot I can’t make my mind up about – I’m not sure if Bishop is supposed to have stumbled on the guy who lets him know he’s been set up in the past or if he was waiting for him.  I suspect the former but I wish that in some way it was the later.  This in turn leads to the last big action set piece and then on after a few bits of tidying up to the end credits.

I’ve mentioned Léon several times because although quite different movies there are similarities.  The biggest difference has to be the character’s journeys.  Léon stays in one place but goes on a journey that ultimately results in his self-sacrifice.  Bishop remains throughout pretty much a cold fish who travels a lot but goes nowhere in the process – even when he appears to be becoming involved.  Even going after the bad guys for revenge can be thought of as removing someone who is likely to come after him as a loose end.  There is no way Bishop is going to end up flagged RED.

This film has good points.   The sound track is solid if nothing to write home about.  The action is good if a little bit of a subpar Borne Supremacy in places.  There is no dodgy CGI to add any silly comic book moments.  The acting doesn’t suffer from any cringe worthy performances – it’s a shame that Donald Sutherland doesn’t get more time and that the main villain isn’t weightier to match.  In the end The Mechanic is a pop corn action flick.

Normally I slap the spoiler warning on once and leave it at that – however I really think I have to warn you about the following question – because it is a real spoiler.  So here is the spoiler warning for a second and a third time.  If you want my conclusions see back at the start before the first spoiler bar.

The film that suffers from one major Fridge Pipe plot point – if Arthur Bishop is as smart as he appears to be through most of the film why doesn’t he figure out when he’s being set up to do the bad guys dirty work for them?  When they tell him only two people can be responsible for some bad things we know what the first of the two twists will be.   We know that when he kills Harry that only leaves Dean (is that his first name or surname).  When he chance upon the revelation he only has one direction to go in.  It also puts in motion what has to happen with Steve and then they go and telegraph both sides of that so we can see the second twist coming along just like the bin lorry that runs Dean’s car through a little bit earlier.

Potted review: The Expendables is OK but a bit of a missed opportunity – was Stalone been eating Quiche while writing?

I went to see The Expendables last night.  I had worried that the Arnie, Bruce Willis and Stalone scene was going to turn out to be flan;  that the whole of it might have been used for the trailers.  Fortunately it hadn’t been so it was a fan pleasing moment.  It wasn’t Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Heat but it was three of the biggest box office stars of the 80s on screen together.

However it set up a pattern for the rest of the film.  Stalone has a scene with Statham.    Stalone has a scene with Rourke.  Stalone has a scene with Li.  It would have been nice to see Statham with Li or Li with Rourke.   Despite all the screen time he had Stalone’s character felt like the least well developed.  His motivation for going back badly drawn pretty much coming down to a facial tick when he first sees Sandra.

Now I’m not saying that any ‘80s action film needed more than that but this film wasn’t a true ‘80s action flick.  It felt like someone was eating quiche while writing it.  It kept trying to be something a bit more modern.   The dialogue in all those scenes between Stalone and an other actor was subpar Tarantino.  The inclusion of, the sadly underused, Charisma Carpenter just reminded me how Joss Whedon turned the heroine needing the male action star coming to her rescue cliché on its head.

The action sequences at least were very much in the ‘80s action style.  There wasn’t a lot of obvious CG or a reliance on slow mo / fast mo to try and make the action more exciting.  There were car chases, fights, explosions, big guns and all the other elements you’d expect.  Sadly the final big fight had one element I’d hoped would be avoided – confusion.  As it progressed it just wasn’t clear who was doing what or who was fighting who.  At one point I thought Stalone was in a fight and then realised it was Statham.  More shots of them working as a well practiced unit like they did in the opening boat sequence could have raised the saved the finale.  It wasn’t Street Fighter confused but it lost narrative in favour of things going bang.

It also felt at times like it was trying to set up a franchise rather than do what it should have.  Jet Li’s whole family thing needed to be developed and explained rather than be left hanging.  Dolph Lundgren’s miraculous return from a “fatal” wound now in therapy / treatment for the ride into the sunset.  Is Stalone hoping he’s set up a new action franchise that he can pick and choose from a cast of action stars for?

So overall I’d come away saying The Expendables was another so-so action film.  It’s on a par with  The A-Team, The Losers or Salt each of which had flaws but, for me, Inception is still leading the pack with Solomon Kane getting an honourable mention for trying to be different.  There is at least one challenger left for the 2010 action crown – the trailers for R.E.D. look good.  Can Bruce and friends teach the youngsters a lesson?