Mechanic: Resurrection

Vampire Owl: This reminds me of someone I know very closely.

Vampire Bat: Oh, you mean the Transporter. Or the Hitman.

Vampire Owl: None of them – I know that they are exclusive to the human race.

Vampire Bat: Then who are you talking about?

Vampire Owl: Don’t you remember my zombie minion who was a mechanic?

Vampire Bat: He fixed tombstones. You can’t call him a mechanic.

Vampire Owl: Well, we work through magic. What else is there to repair?

Vampire Bat: But the Mechanic here is a Hitman!

Vampire Owl: And Jason Statham is supposed to be the Transporter!

Vampire Bat: They are all professionals – Hitman, Transporter and Mechanic and there is minimum hair on the head. So, consider them as equals in a divided society and lets watch the movie.

[Gets three cups of masala tea with tapioca chips].

What is the movie about? :: Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham), has left his job as the “mechanic”, which has been a fancy name for a skilled hitman for very long when he was in the field. As he had been more than a professional assassin who specialized in making his assassinations look like accidents, random criminal acts, suicides or just something that happened as a part of collateral damage, he is never really away from his job with the past following him all the time. After pretending to be dead, he has been living in Rio de Janeiro after taking over the name Santos, with no noise, and no more repairing with assassinations as a mechanic. He is approached by a lady named Renee Tran (Rhatha Phongam) who tells him that she knows who he is – she wants him to kill three targets for her boss, and they have to look like accidents or normal deaths.

So, what happens next? :: Using his special skills and experience, Arthur makes his escape from Renee and her mercenaries, making his way into the resort of his old friend, Mae (Michelle Yeoh) in Thailand. There he meets a woman called Gina Thorne (Jessica Alba) who is beaten by a man, and saves her, but later realizes that she is the bait, and someone has put her there to make him fall for her, so that he can later make him do assassinations for him – the same person who was following him in Latin America. It is the man called Crain (Sam Hazeldine) who used to be Arthur’s childhood friend, but that bond no longer remained, only to turn into hate later. He would kidnap the woman, and ask Arthur to do the three kills to keep her safe. Arthur has decided to make sure that Gina remains safe, and so he goes after his first target. But this one is inside a prison, and won’t be that easy – and two more will follow.

The defence of Mechanic: Resurrection :: There is unlimited action guaranteed with this sequel, and one can safely see that it is even bigger than its predecessor in that particular department. All the action remains simple, but effective, and there is no shortage of thrills in this journey. The action actually begins in the first location itself, and there is a fine dose of the same in between – the executions are also nicely done, especially, the one from under the swimming pool at the top of the skyscraper. There are some nice twists to go with the same too, and none of these are without style here – we all know what Jason Statham is capable of from all he has done within this genre. Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and Bulgaria – the settings for this movie are all beautiful without doubt; especially those first shots at Rio de Janeiro and what all follows at those times in Thailand.

The claws of flaw :: People might have wished for something more in the story with this second addition to the franchise – a lot more than the usual thing, but they had to be satisfied with the hitman doing jobs with this one. There might also be the need for a more standardized progress with a movie like this and also the requirement for better dialogues and moments to remember. Another thing is that people are going to compare, and that might not do much good here – it is enjoyable what you see on the screen that matters the most. You are also sure to ask more from Jessica Alba’s character and also for Michelle Yeoh. Mechanic: Resurrection could have chosen to satisfy them all, but the fact that it doesn’t try to do the same means that we can watch them all without being bothered by the rest of the world.

Performers of the soul :: Jason Statham once again shines with what he does the best – it used to be The Transporter, Crank or The Expendables, and here, he continues to create that impression on us, as we watch him take on the bad guys. As the person who has been the Transporter before, and as the person who has been the fans’ first preference to become Agent 47 in Hitman, he easily goes through this role which demands nothing that special from someone who is so close to this genre. Well, we need to watch him in this kind of roles as it is how we have known him for a long time. As the hero that we want him to be, he is there again. It is good to see Jessica Alba again, but her role is a little too limited in this one, becoming the damsel in distress for too much time. Sam Hazeldine makes a pretty good villain here, and Tommy Lee Jones scores with the screen time that he has. Michelle Yeoh could also been used more.

How it finishes :: A lot of people might have chosen to degrade this movie, and it might not be the overrated critics’ material – but that doesn’t take out anything from this movie which delivers, and we have no doubt about that. Grossing more than its predecessor, this one proves that there is more to the movie than what the reviews say – Mechanic: Resurrection is not the kind of movie that goes for brainless entertainment either, and so you can be sure that critics have got this wrong, and it is not the case of just with one person. After watching this movie against many opinions, I have only found people who had told that this movie is disappointing, as disappointing for me. It happens very often with action movies as well as the horror flicks; we know a movie is good, and there are those reviews which look at the flicks in a strange way – but we get over it and go through to watch the movie.

Release date: 26th August 2016
Running time: 98 minutes
Directed by: Dennis Gansel
Starring: Jason Statham, Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Sam Hazeldine, Rhatha Phongam, Natalie Burn, Anteo Quintavalle, Femi Elufowoju, John Cenatiempo, Toby Eddington