Jason Statham Returns as a Reluctant Assassin in Mechanic: Resurrection

Arthur Bishop has retired from assassination, or so he believed. Then Riah Crain shows up, kidnaps the woman Bishop loves, and forces him back into the business he tried to leave behind. Mechanic: Resurrection is a 2016 action thriller that trades the quiet dread of its predecessor for a globe-trotting chase across four continents. Jason Statham returns as Bishop, joined by Tommy Lee Jones, Jessica Alba, and Michelle Yeoh. The result is a movie that knows how to hit and doesn’t know when to stop.

Trailer, via LionsgateFilmsUK.

Three Targets, One Pattern

Bishop fakes his death and settles in Rio de Janeiro under the name Santos. A courier named Renee Tran tracks him down, and her employer wants Bishop to kill three targets and make each death look accidental. Bishop escapes, flees to Thailand, and takes refuge at a resort island beach house belonging to his friend Mei. There he rescues a woman named Gina Thornton, who was beaten aboard a boat. In the scuffle, the man’s head hits a bollard and he dies. Bishop burns the boat and learns Gina was planted there, connected to Crain. She reveals that Crain threatened the children’s shelter she runs in Cambodia unless she participated.

Over the next few days, Bishop and Gina grow closer. He tells her he knew Crain as a child, that both were sold to the same gang. Crain holds a grudge because Bishop escaped and Crain feels abandoned. As expected, Crain’s mercenaries abduct them and Crain keeps Gina hostage to ensure Bishop completes the assassinations.

The first target is a warlord named Krill, held in a Malaysian prison. Bishop gets himself imprisoned, gains Krill’s trust by killing a man who attempts to murder him, and then overdoses Krill with snake venom. He escapes with the help of Crain’s operatives.

The second target is Adrian Cook, a Sydney-based billionaire and former human trafficker. Bishop bypasses Cook’s penthouse apartment’s security.

Love, Leverage, and Snake Venom

The film’s central tension is simple: Bishop can save Gina, or he can save the world. Crain’s plan hinges on Bishop becoming romantically involved with Gina, then kidnapping her as leverage so that Bishop will take on the assassinations. The twist is that Bishop knew Crain as a child, and Crain holds a grudge because Bishop escaped the gang and Crain feels abandoned.

The problem is that the setup is never fully earned. Bishop’s relationship with Gina feels rushed, and the threat to the Cambodian children’s shelter is barely established before it becomes the entire reason for the mission. The film asks us to care about Gina and the children, but it never gives us enough time to.

Key Facts
– Directed by Dennis Gansel
– Written by Philip Shelby and Tony Mosher, with a story by Shelby and Brian Pittman
– Runtime 99 minutes
– Budget $40 million
– Worldwide gross $125 million
– Premiered in Hollywood on August 22, 2016
– Theatrical release in the United States on August 26, 2016

The Numbers Tell the Truth

The film grossed $125 million worldwide against a budget of $40 million, eclipsing the total of its predecessor. That’s the kind of number that makes studios happy, even if the reviews weren’t.

This is a film that understands how to move a body and doesn’t understand how to build a story around one. The action sequences are competent, the locations are exotic, and Statham remains a reliable physical presence. But the plot is a machine with no soul, a series of targets and escapes that never adds up to anything more than the sum of its parts. The love story is a placeholder, the revenge plot is a gesture, and the final act rushes through the remaining assassinations with barely a glance backward.

Mechanic: Resurrection is a competent but hollow sequel, a film that knows its own mechanics and forgets why anyone cares. It’s a 3.8 out of 10.

2016 films · action thriller · Jason Statham · Mechanic · movie review