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By Maggie Scott

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) kills people.  Not just any people; the ones who have violated codes of—and committed unforgiveable rule infractions of —international geo-political power plays.

The Mechanic tells the story of the one time that Bishop fails to question his own intractable rules that have kept him alive and the best in this business.  Bishop’s “assignments” have taken him all over the world, but home base is New Orleans.

At this loner’s house deep in the bayou, he studies the copious documents and photos in his targets’ dossiers that will give him what he needs to reach and take out those targets. The moment of death does not move him…has not moved him, until he’s ordered to take out Harry (Donald Sutherland), his mentor.

Bishop doesn’t usually question Dean (Tony Goldwyn), the man who gives Bishop his killing orders.  But, this time he needs to hear that Harry sold out; that good men died because of him (“debts…his divorce…he was vulnerable”).  But, Bishop makes a fatal mistake: He fails to consider the source of Harry’s indictment.  So, the deed done, Bishop pays his respects at the New Orleans cemetery gravesite.

There’s another interested party there…Steve McKenna (Ben Foster).  He thinks he’s got what it takes to do what Bishop does.  What he’s got is that he’s a thug, trying to compensate for a hefty inferiority complex.  But, Bishop has to take him on; spend days with him on target practice; test him on a mission; patch him up when Steve refuses to do the job “clean;” and take him along as side man on two other assignments.

Steve keeps his nose clean and demonstrates exceptional facility for ferocious annihilations.  But, then he discovers something that will make him violate one of Bishop’s cardinal rules: There is no place for vengeance in the mindset of a successful mechanic.  Meanwhile, Bishop doesn’t have much time to draw on his experience with human nature to stay two steps ahead of his psychopathic intern.

Although Foster has been unfavorably compared with a gnarly version of Justin Timberlake, he owns this role; projecting considerable menace, and earning a favorable comparison to the young Ed Norton.

At this stage of his career, Statham can pull off this kind of role in his sleep; which takes it dangerously close to a “mechanical” delivery, even as it thrills.  Firing on all four cylinders of blood, bashed-up autos, gun play and gore, The Mechanic passes inspection by even the most die-hard action-movie fan.  Rated R for nudity and strong violence, language and sex content.

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