Movie #90 The Mechanic *1972*

A good one is hard to find.

I saw a trailer for a "new" film the other day called The Mechanic.  This is a remake of a 70's film staring Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent.  Bronson plays a hitman working for a secret organization.  He kills a friend of his fathers as part of a contract.  He then befriends this mans loud mouth arrogant son and mentors him in the ways of being a professional killer.

The first 15 minutes of this films were great.  Bronson without a word spoken sneaks into a mans house and sets a trap that will allow him to "eliminate" the man from across the street.  This is great 70's cinema.  It all goes down hill from there.  The plot meanders around while we bask in the glory that was the 70's and all its excess.  Or at least what the establishment wanted America to see in it's films. 

We have The Charles Bronson dressed up in red silk pajamas (cause he is classy), in gray sweats when playing handball (to show off his youthful side while he was 50), SCUBA gear (no reason) and a karate uniform in a heavy handed lesson in right vs wrong and young vs old.

This movie had a ton of unintentional laughs.  Even outside of the costumes.  There was a dirt bike chase that ended *SPOILER ALERT* with Bronson intentionally crashing his bike so he didn't go over a 30 foot cliff.  The bad guy must not have seen it and he took a slight fall and the motorcycle blew up like an A-Bomb.  There there is the car chase scene at the end where *ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT* Bronson is so far ahead in his car that when he runs out of ammo, he gets out and hot wires a bulldozer and slams it into his pursuer.  He then pushes the car off a cliff and it falls for like 40 seconds.  It was the longest car plunge I have ever seen.

The acting is God awful throughout.  There are a ton of "yes..." and "ok..." and "what?".  Then there is line reading after line reading.  It is comical.  If I can find a particular scene I will post it in the Trailer Park.  Then there is the inevitable plot twist and the even more inevitable revenge double twist. 

The remake stars Jason Statham and Ben Foster, an actor I like a lot.  I hope they are able to bring a little more to the story than the original, but it looks like a run of the mill action flick.  Who knows, maybe Statham will rock a velvet robe and a pipe (to show he is classy).

I give The Mechanic a 2/5 stars.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.