Review of film: "THE MECHANIC" ( an action-thriller about hit-men )

2011, 01-24:

Review of film:  “THE MECHANIC”

Double-cross, triple-cross, cris-cross--  it’s all in a “day’s work” when you’re an “independent” HIT-MAN…

…  Arthur Bishop (JASON STATHAM) is “For Hire”, & I don’t mean for OFFICE work…  As the film starts, he’s involved in “taking-out” a DRUG lord of some kind in Colombia…  Bit-by-bit, we learn that he’s working for a powerful “autonomous” agency called “The Company”, headed by Dean (TONY GOLDWYN)…

…  For some reason, he’s instructed to “deal” with a guy named Harry McKenna (DONALD SUTHERLAND), who’d been a “MENTOR” of sorts to him in the past…  They talk about what a “loser” Donald’s son Steve (BEN FOSTER) had been, discuss the “biz” they’d both been involved in for years, etc…

…  In part because of what happens to Donald, Jason takes Ben under his (destructive) “wing” & teaches HIM the “biz”…  Because Ben had a history of “screwing-up” things, Jason cautions him to handle things in a “certain” way with a huge guy named Burke (JEFF CHASE).  Ben, naturally, DISREGARDS his words-- & suffers for it…

…  The “Company” sets Jason (& Ben) up with some other “temp” jobs, including going after a scammer RELIGIOUS figure named “Vaughn” (JOHN McCONNELL) in Chicago [tho most scenes appear to have been actually shot in Louisiana]…

…  The film is an EXPLOSION-lovers dream, with loads of fast-paced action & violence, plus bunches of blood squirting all over the place…  But, “COMPLICATIONS” arise in the lives of Jason & Ben, as each separately learns some “disquieting” information about the “trade” they’d chosen & the people they were “involved” with…

…  Will there be DECEPTIONS in the various relationships?...  WHO was really deceiving whom?...  Will Jason & Ben be able to CONTINUE working together as more & more facts get known?...  What will “happen” to them & the people who’d misled them?...

…  The film is basically EFFECTIVE as an “actioner” chase / thriller--  tho periodically overly “one-note” in its story line…  The acting is successful and “believable”, & thus, I’m rating the movie as 7.5 out of 10 stars…