MECHANIC: RESURRECTION (Dennis Gansel). 99 minutes. Opens Friday (August 26). See listing. Rating: NN
Mechanic: Resurrection aims to be no more satisfying than an oil change, and no one seems more bored by that prospect than Jason Statham.
The actor with the furious brow could enliven the most primitive action vehicles, flashing a devious smile and classy British accent garbled up by a warthog’s grunt.
But here, he only has a dead dry stare – for Jessica Alba’s perpetual pout and contractual affections for the henchmen he plucks off like they’re poultry coming up on a conveyor belt for a nemesis who cooks up such a cockamamie scheme that Statham’s hitman Arthur Bishop should be chuckling at such wasted efforts.
The nemesis is Crain (Sam Hazeldine), Bishop’s cohort from a traumatizing orphanage who’s a little pissed off because he has abandonment issues. He dispatches Alba’s Gina to win Bishop’s heart, just so he can then kidnap her and use her as leverage, forcing the hitman to come out of retirement and take out three high-priority targets.
Don’t consider these spoilers, because Bishop is wise to that plan from the get-go. And even though at any moment he could just go and napalm the villain and his empire, which he eventually does, Bishop decides he’ll just jump through these hoops anyways. There wouldn’t be a movie otherwise.
A couple of decent fight scenes where Statham grills a man’s face or shoots from a spinning life boat ensures that Mechanic: Resurrection delivers on the most basic expectations.
