Movie Review – “The Mechanic”

Movie: The Mechanic

Rating: êêê

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is the 'mechanic'. He is an elite hit man with a unique talent for cleanly eliminating targets and making their death seem accidental or something other then what it really is, an assassination. It's a job that requires professional perfection and total detachment from everyone, and Bishop is the best in the business.

The movie opens to Bishop drowning a drug cartel boss while arm guards are nearby without even the slightest disruption. When the victim is discovered floating in the pool Bishop sneaks out and the mission is complete and no one knows he was there.

His handler is his mentor and close friend Harry McKenna(Donald Sutherland) who he is debriefed back home and receives payment for services rendered. They bond over cheap coffee and Harry’s son Steve (Ben Foster) who Harry can’t seem to help keep his life on track.

Returning to his house he checks craigslist for his next contract, only to learn that Harry is the next target. Having to be sure there isn’t a mistake he contacts Dean(Tony Goldwyn) Harry’s partner and Bishop is told that Harry betrayed them during an operation in South Africa for $20M and is a threat to everyone. They also choose Bishop because of the relationship and that only he could get to him without being noticed. He completes his job making it look like a carjacking gone wrong.

Bishop becomes the only friend to Steve who is morning his father’s loss, wants vengeance and wants to learn to be a mechanic. Bishop trains Steve and teaches him the ropes and shows him how it’s done. Bishop takes out an arms dealer and makes it look like auto-erotic affixation. Then when Steve is ready Bishop gives him his first job. The target is Burke (Jeff Chase) a rival mechanic who has a fondness for young boys and small dogs. Steve doesn’t follow the plan and finds himself in a fight for his life with a much larger and more skilled assassin.

Dean is disappointed with Bishops use of Steve but gives him his next job. This one is much more dangerous and involves assassinating the leader of a cult like church (John McConnell). Their plan is to give him Adrenaline to simulate a heart attack but their plan hits a snag when they realize that the pastor is being drugged with ketamine and would inhibit the adrenaline’s effectiveness. They improvise and suffocate the pastor. As Bishop and Steve wait in the walls of the apartment for a clean get away they are discovered and there is a shootout with the guards. To avoid capture they leave separately.

Bishop discovers that it was Dean that has betrayed Harry and that Dean had gotten rid of Harry because Harry was getting close to discovering the truth when he meets one of those thought to be killed in South Africa at the airport.

Realizing that Harry was murdered at his own hands, Bishop is anything but detached. Angry that he was tricked into killing his friend his next assignment is his own and he wants those responsible dead.

Bishop races home and calls Steve only to find that Steve has also ambushed at Bishops house. Bishop walks him through his killing the ambushers using a gun hidden in the sofa. Once Bishop arrives he instructs Steve to gather supplies. Steve finds his father’s gun and realizes that it was Bishop who killed his father and not a carjacker. After working together to kill Dean They stop to get gas and Bishops sees that Steve has his father’s gun. Steve pumps the gas but adjusts the nozzle to pour gas all over the ground instead of in the tank. He shoots the tank blows up the truck and the gas station.

Steve returns to Bishops house and plays a record on the turntable and then decides to takes his vintage 1966 Jaguar E-type for a ride. He sees a note on the passenger seat which he reads “Steve, if your reading this then you’re dead”. Steve laughs and moments later the car explodes killing him. At the same time the record player finished playing and activates a trip wire that blows up the house. Back at the gas Station the surveillance camera reveals that Bishop had gotten out of the Truck just before it exploded, saving himself. We end the movie with Bishop getting in another truck that he has stashed and drives away.