The Mechanic Who Did Too Much

A very efficient hit man teams up with a not-so-efficient apprentice, to give us a one and a half hour adrenaline driven lukewarm thriller.

The one thing I genuinely liked about this movie were the cars used in it. I know this is a slap in the face for the movie makers, but to an average viewer, a batman without the mask who works during the day too, is not exactly a crowd-puller. Throughout the film, Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) keeps on completing assignments (doing jobs, as he puts it) handed to him. He says that what he does requires a set mind; but when he kills his friend, Harry McKenna, he feels sorry for Steve McKenna, Harry's son. Now why would he feel sorry if he had a "set" mind?

Anyway, the film steamrolls on and Steve becomes Arthur's partner, of sorts. Steve wants to find out who killed his father although 'he doesn't give a shit'. Don't start counting the number of conflicting statements in this film, you'll get a headache, if you didn't already get one from all the grueling scenes in the movie. Finally, it emerges that Harry's partner was the one to have set Arthur up to kill Harry. This infuriates the "set" minded machine (suits Arthur more than the term "the mechanic") who, with his partner, goes on to kill the guy.

While trying to do so, they destroy more than just a couple of fine cars. After they kill the guy, Steve looks for revenge and dies trying to gain it, because Arthur has a "set" mind, who already predicted Steve's every move. And by the looks of it, I thought Arthur actually could look some ten seconds into the future.

All in all, it felt like this was Hollywood's take on a very popular superstar of India. The only time the cheers came from the theater was when Statham was introduced, and this time, he looked very commercial as the brooding mechanic (read machine). The only reminder of this movie would be the quote victory loves preparation.