How can a film with a relatively big budget (as these things go),with plenty of exotic locale filming, with some pretty good stuntwork, with some intriguing stars…turn out so damn dull?

As I started up Mechanic: Resurrection, the sequel to Jason Statham’s original 2011 The Mechanic (itself a remake of the far better Charles Bronson/Jan Michael Vincent film of the same name released in 1972), I had trouble getting into what I was seeing.

The opening action sequences were decent enough and helped re-establish the assassin/hitman character of Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham, natch)…and yet with each passing minute I couldn’t help but fight a too-strong sense of “been there, done that” with the proceedings, which involve Bishop trying to flee his previous life but getting “sucked back in” because he falls for Gina (Jessica Alba, not bad in the damsel in distress role but I really thought there would be one more twist regarding her character at the movie’s end) which allows the bad guys to kidnap her and force Bishop to take on three contracts.  In theory, they will let her -and he- go after these three assassinations.

Yeah, sure they will.

So we follow Bishop to different locales around the world (the film’s makers were going for a James Bond/Mission Impossible vibe) as he takes out his targets while figuring a means of getting his girl free.

The movie features not only Mr. Statham and Ms. Alba but Michelle Yeoh in a completely wasted/pointless role.  I can’t believe the film’s makers snagged one of the top Asian female action stars and put her in an action film yet couldn’t figure out a way to show off any of her athleticism or dexterity!  That’s right, kids, Ms. Yeoh has zero action scenes in this film!

Then there’s the extended cameo toward the end of the film by Tommy Lee Jones.  He plays Max Adams, the last of the three targets Bishop is being forced to kill.  It is a testament to Tommy Lee Jones’ acting skills that when he appears in the film’s last quarter he single-handedly enlivens this whole dull mess with nothing more than solid, cheerful, and charismatic acting.

Again, I’m at a loss: How could a film with, at least on paper, so many positives turn out so damn bland?

Mechanic: Resurrection should have been far better than it is.  Unfortunately, it fails to offer everything it promises and instead gives us a thriller without many thrills and a suspense film devoid of suspense.  A big disappointment.

PERSONAL DISCLAIMER:  Neither this film nor the original The Mechanic (Both the Bronson and Statham ones) have anything -other than the similar title- to do with my 2009 novel Mechanic, the first book in my Corrosive Knights series.

I admit the 1972 Bronson film was very familiar to me -indeed, I like that film and its nihilistic ending quite a bit- when I named my book, but the term “Mechanic” was used for many years before the release of that film to refer to hitmen and, at least in 2006/7/8/9 when I was working on the novel I figured no one remembered the Bronson film so there would be no confusion between it and my book.

Ah well!