The Mechanic (2011)

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Movie
German title The Mechanic
Original title The Mechanic
The Mechanic Logo.png
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK No youth
approval JMK 16
Rod
Director Simon West
script Lewis John Carlino
Richard Wenk
production David Winkler
Bill Charthoff
René Besson
music Mark Isham
camera Eric Schmidt
cut TG Herrington
Todd E. Miller
occupation

The Mechanic is an American action - thriller by Simon West from the year 2011 . It is a remake of the 1972 Cold Breath film starring Charles Bronson .

In 2016, Mechanic: Resurrection, a sequel to the film, was released.

action

A wealthy drug lord takes a dip in the swimming pool of his Colombian villa. On the dark bottom of the pool he sees a clock lying and dive down, but then he is from the disguised assassins arrested Arthur Bishop and pushed to the bottom of the pool until he drowns. When the dead is discovered, the “Mechanic” Bishop uses the ensuing chaos for his precisely prepared escape. Back home, he meets Harry McKenna, whom he regards as his friend and mentor. He pays him for his successful job, and after a conversation about Harry's son Steve, they both go their ways again.

Back at his house, Bishop is given a new assignment to kill Harry. He calls his client Dean to confirm this at a personal meeting. Dean tells him about a failed mission in South Africa , in which five hit men from his organization were killed. Only two people would have known about it, himself and Harry. Bishop reluctantly confirms the order and lures Harry, who is confined to a wheelchair, into a trap. Harry accepts his fate and even helps Bishop make his own killing look like a robbery car theft . Bishop kills Harry with his own gun and takes it with him.

At Harry's grave he meets his son Steve, who tells him that he wants to find the alleged perpetrator, a car thief, and kill him. Bishop then follows Steve and interrupts him while trying to shoot a car thief he believes to be his father's killer. Bishop recognizes the potential in Steve and decides to train him as a "Mechanic".

After Steve has shown a certain routine, Bishop expands his training and takes him for the first time on an assignment. He strangles an arms dealer with a belt, making it look like an autoerotic suicide accident . To do this, he instructs Steve in the entire planning process.

Bishop informs Steve that he should now carry out his first own assignment. The target is Burke, a “mechanic” from another agency who regularly visits the same café he sent Steve to every day. Burke's only weakness are young men and small dogs. Bishop instructs Steve to mix an overdose of Rohypnol into the drink for Burke . It doesn't take long before Burke takes him over for a drink. But Steve ignores the plan and lets himself be taken into Burke's apartment. When he tries to undress, Steve tries to strangle him with a belt. But Burke fights back, whereupon a fierce fight breaks out, which Steve can only win with difficulty.

Bishop's boss Dean is dissatisfied that Steve was used on this assignment. He gives Bishop a new assignment to kill Andrew Vaughn, the leader of a sect.

Steve and Bishop plan to inject Vaughn with adrenaline to simulate a heart attack . They crawl through the exhaust system of Vaughn's hotel room and hide behind the wall paneling. But before they can go ahead with their plan, they watch Vaughn take ketamine , which slows adrenaline pumping. So they improvise and instead suffocate him with an endoscope . However, they are discovered by Vaughn's guards and have to shoot their way free. Meanwhile the hotel is evacuated and they decide to escape separately from each other.

At the airport, Bishop discovers Sebastian, one of the men who, according to Dean's statement, was actually killed during the South Africa mission. When he confronts Sebastian about it, Sebastian admits that it was not Harry who betrayed and sold the mission, but Dean himself. Bishop then had Harry eliminated in order to cover up both the failed mission and his own business. Sebastian attacks Bishop, but is killed by this.

Bishop realizes that he has been misled and is now to be eliminated. When he begins to rearrange things, he is ambushed by other “Mechanics”. He can turn them all off and he takes one of their cell phones to make sure Dean was behind this attack. Then he calls Steve, who was expected at Bishop's house by Dean's killers and is now supposed to lure Bishop over. This tells him where he has hidden a gun, and Steve uses it to fight his way free.

Eventually Bishop arrives at home as well and sends Steve off to pack equipment while he tries to figure out how to get to Dean himself. During the preparations, Steve discovers his father's gun and realizes that he did not die in a robbery, but at the hands of Bishop.

You attack one of Dean's confidants and find out Dean's whereabouts. Bishop calls Dean, making him believe he's in the same building. Dean panics and lets his bodyguards take him out of the building. With the help of several vehicles, Steve and Bishop then ambush Dean's convoy and finally shoot him together.

On the way back, Bishop happened to see Harry's gun, which Steve was wearing under his jacket. They stop at a gas station, where Steve gets out and pretends to refuel, but he lets the gasoline pour onto the floor. Bishop is still in the vehicle when Steve pulls Harry's gun and shoots the gasoline, causing the vehicle and the entire gas station to explode.

Steve then returns to Bishop's house. There he puts on a record , goes into the garage and takes the '66 Jaguar E-Type , which Bishop has restored. The record player now triggers a device that causes the house to explode just as Steve drives out of the garage. He spots a note in the passenger seat and stops. It says: "Steve, if you read this, you will be dead. Bishop". Steve laughs at this and puts the car into gear to continue, but at that moment the vehicle explodes.

The video from a surveillance camera at the gas station shows Bishop rolling out of his vehicle and escaping shortly before the explosion. In the last scene he drives into the sunset in another car.

publication

After the film opened in Russia on January 13, 2011, it had its theatrical release in the United States on January 25, 2011. With a budget of 40 million US dollars, worldwide revenues were 51.07 million US dollars , of which 29.1 million US dollars were earned in the USA (as of August 2, 2011). On April 7, 2011 it had its theatrical release in Germany. While Kinowelt is responsible for distribution for Germany , Elmo Movieworld is responsible for Austria .

Reviews

Roger Ebert said in his review that it can be assumed that the viewer does not judge the murders in the film morally, because nothing in them has a human meaning. It is all a "technical exercise" ("It is assumed we make no moral judgment on his murders because nothing in this film has human meaning ... It's all an exercise in technique."). Xan Brooks of the Guardian called the film skillful, silly and strangely entertaining ("This upgrade of the 1972 Charles Bronson hitman caper is slick, silly and oddly enjoyable"). Mary Pols of Time magazine compared the character of Statham to that of Charles Bronson and found that Statham's character got their hands dirty, was more emotional and was nowhere near the cleverness of the original. In addition, nobody survived in the original film.

“Certainly, if you don't like action films, 'The Mechanic' won't convert you - too hard and too uncompromising. For fans, however, the recommendation of the month. Everything is just right here: the story, the pace, the actors, the action. Conclusion: The modernization has not damaged the story. Even fans of the original will appreciate the remake. "

- Cinema

"Violent action film full of stupid masculinity poses, clichés and homophobic-racist resentments."

- Lexicon of international film

continuation

On August 25, 2016, the sequel Mechanic: Resurrection , again with Jason Statham in the lead role, was released in German cinemas. The director took Dennis Gansel . Jessica Alba , Michelle Yeoh and Tommy Lee Jones can also be seen in other roles .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Mechanic . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2011 (PDF; test number: 126 150 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for The Mechanic . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ The Mechanic on boxofficemojo.com (English)
  4. ↑ suntimes.com (English) Film review by Roger Ebert (January 26, 2011)
  5. ↑ guardian.co.uk (English) Film review by Xan Brooks (January 27, 2011)
  6. ↑ time.com (English) Film review by Mary Pols (January 27, 2011)
  7. ↑ The Mechanic (2011) on cinema.de
  8. ^ The Mechanic. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used