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The Mechanic Blu-ray Review

Action set pieces are the only highlights in “The Mechanic.”

The premise: After killing his friend/teacher Harry, a hitman named Arthur decides to take Harry’s son Steve under his wing to train him as a fellow hitman. The two inititally seek revenge against his father’s murderer, but of course, Steve doesn’t know that Arthur actually killed his father. Cue lots of action, bloody violence, and an inevitable confrontation between Steve and Arthur. This movie is a remake of the film of a film with the same name that starred Charles Bronson.

If you’re looking for action, you’ll be happy to know that this film boasts some truly impressive action set pieces such as an underwater murder, a bridge jump, a nasty house brawl, a shootout, a bus fight, car crashes, and even some explosions. Unfortunately, that’s all the movie has going for it. “The Mechanic” generally feels like an ugly, disposable, soulless 80’s action flick. The cast (namely Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Donald Sutherland) go through the motions until an action set piece pops up that is. The film only ever truly comes alive during the action which is a shame because this could have been a decent popcorn flick had more attention been put into the lackluster script.

Summary: Action movie and Jason Statham fans may want to give “The Mechanic” a rent, but I can’t give this flawed remake a recommendation myself.

Audio/Video:

The 2.40:1 1080p picture quality is noticeably sharp here. This is as good as a Blu-ray disc gets, folks. Everything from the stubble on Statham’s face to the Lousiana cinematography looks crystal clear here. 

The DTS-HD 5.1 audio track generally delivers the goods, but Sutherland, Foster, and Statham’s mumbling may sometimes require viewers to turn up the volume.

Extras:

* Sony trailers.
* 5 deleted/extended scenes.
* “Tools Of The Trade: Inside The Action”- A behind-the-scenes featurette that mainly covers a behind-the-scenes look at the action sequences/stunts.
*MovieIQ track.
* BD-Live capabilities.

May 22, 2011 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Action Movie, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, The Mechanic Blu-ray Review