The ABC of becoming a hitman

It's time for another remake so I'll review the original first as usual.



The Mechanic (1972)

This is a story of an old hitman who gets an assignment to kill his friend. He of course does it and takes the son of his friend as his apprentice. He teaches the young man all the tricks of the trade and soon they realize someone's after them. I really like the story and how nicely twisted it is. The guys are very cold blooded and emotions don't play any part of this movie even though it has a fair deal of betrayal and vengeance possibilities. That worked surprisingly well and made the already muted film even more cold. That suits the gritty style of the director, Michael Winner, very nicely. Charles Bronson is as good as he can be as the hitman and the rest of the cast is quite suiting also. Loved the creativeness on some of the kills and Bronson's cool calm style in the tight situations. This is a great action packed thriller well worth watching.
80%



The Mechanic (2011)

I have to spoil a bit both of the movies to point out what did and what didn't work with the remake. So the story is the same, basically. Jason Statham takes on Bronson's role and Ben Foster is the young apprentice. To be honest at start I was quite surprised Statham was taken to play the part of the old hitman with health problems, but soon found out that wasn't the case in this remake and in the end both turned out to be quite good choices for the parts. Rest of the cast wasn't bad at all either. But then to the story and the spoilers. I really didn't like that they brought in emotions to the story, the young apprentice isn't as interesting as a vengeance seeking son as another hitman who couldn't give a damn about his father. Also giving so much "justification" to the killings took away the power of them, now they just felt simple entertainment. Statham is not a criminal, he's a hero killing other criminals and taking out crime organizations. I was also disappointed to the killings, only one of them was a carefully executed plan, rest just action extravaganza. Also the ending is not nearly as effective as in the original where it's left a lot more open and has that poetic justice to it. So this is basically a watered down version of the original with cheap grabs to the emotional twists of the story. For that I would like to slam it to the ground, but it's still quite entertaining action packed thriller. Watch only if you haven't seen or don't like the original.
60%