You can’t keep a good hit-man down… Jason Statham is back to being the reliable ‘Mechanic’ as his character is resurrected for a sequel…
Charles Bronson was the original Mechanic in the 1972 film in which the titular character acted as an assassin – making all of kills look like natural causes or genuine accidents. In 2011 the idea was revived as a vehicle for Jason Statham and, lo and behold, five years later it’s back for a sequel in the imaginatively entitled Mechanic: Resurrection.
In a film that appears to blend the traditional Statham template – of a hardened anti-hero going up against an army of equally hardened bad-guys and beating the odds – with some big stunt sequences that might seem ambitious for even some of the Mission Impossible movies. This time, having secretly retired to a desert island paradise his girl-friend Gina (Jessica Alba) is kidnapped and Statham must perform three top-level assassinations to win her freedom. Naturally, our anti-hero Arthur Bishop doesn’t take kindly to those kind of negotiating tactics and decides to turn the tables on his antagonists.. Far from being just a solo-vehicle for Statham, Alba can handle action sequences herself and the supporting cast are veteran names unto themselves: including the likes of the great Tommy Lee Jones (delightfully hamming it up) and the legend that is Michelle Yeoh.
The Summit/Millennium-released film arrives on cinema screens on 26th August in the UK and US.