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Jan. 29th, 2011 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsSo, saw the Mechanic today. The plot is somewhat different from the original movie, but there are some key elements remaining. But more on that later. Its a rated R movie, so its pretty violent, and Mini Anden does some nudity in this. So why the hell would you bring a little kid to this?! I mean, the row in front of me, two different parents brought their kids, who didn't even look like they were in the double digits age wise. And I don't know if its because I'm like old or something, but while I enjoyed seeing Jason Staham screw a nekkid Mini Anden, or he and Ben Foster gorily dispatch people, I also thought, there's kids watching this, won't this screw them up?
The action was decent enough. There were moments were people were cracking up more than they should have, but not in a "Its so ridiculously stupid you can't help but laugh", but more in a kinda juvenile way. Which is weird, because it was some chyx who were doing that. So anyways, Ben Foster's character, Steve's first assignment from Jason Statham's character, Bishop, was to kill this other "mechanic" from a rival organization. The guy is like 6'7" and 300lbs, and military trained. So Bishop gives him a plan to take the guy out- Steve gets a chihuahua and frequents the same coffee shop everyday for a few weeks that the guy does.
Now, big guy has two weaknesses- he loves chihuahuas, and he loves the boys. So once that particular part of the plan was revealed to the audience, clue to giggles from people all, "Ha, he has to be gay to get the giant gorilla". Of course, since Steve is a sociopath, and thought it was so awesome when he saw Bishop strangle a guy, doesn't want to do the safe "poison the guy" at the bar method. He wants to do it hands on, even though the guy is nearly a foot taller and has prolly more than a hundred pounds on him. So they go back to his place, where again, everyone giggles because Steve has to flirt with the big gay guy to let him let his guard down. So, the guy is gay, its not that hilarious! (They were also amused by the crazy fat cult leader who likes jailbait girls)
But it does lead to a pretty violent fight, where Steve ends up stabbing the guy several times with a screwdriver and also has to repeatedly bash the guy's head in with a crowbar to finally put him down, which, how could you let you kid watch this?!
Anyways, on to the diffs between the original and this remake. One of the themes of the original was, you can get to anyone if you know their weakness. Bishop mentioned it once in the movie, but it doesn't really come into play here other than with how they got close to the huge-ass guy.
Another is, the relationship between Bishop and Steve's father. In the previous movie, Bishop gets the assignment to kill the father, and does it without a problem. Then he meets Steve at the funeral, is for some reason intrigued at how much of a narcissistic sociopath he is, and takes the kid in. In this one, the main bad guy ends up tricking Bishop into killing the father, and feeling sorry for Steve, takes him in to teach him the trade to give him focus. Well, that and he feels guilty because Harry treated Bishop more like a son than his actual son, plus, when Bishop killed him, the organization must've seized Harry's money, as Steve was basically left with nothing. In both versions, Steve is unaware of Bishop's role in his father's death when Bishop takes him in.
In this version, Steve figures it out, and then tries to kill Bishop in the end. In the original, Steve is a homicidal maniac and wants to be number one, and offs Bishop to be top dog, he doesn't even find out about Bishop killing his father. And I think the latter is a better theme. Because as it is, Bishop comes off as kinda a dick. He killed the guy's father, granted, he was tricked into it, but doesn't Steve deserve his revenge? I mean, we get hints that Steve is a crazy, violent eff in this one- he lost a previous job for beating the crap out of someone, has restraining orders against him from old gfs, he screws up a couple of jobs because he wants to kill a bunch of people over Bishop's quick and easy approach.
But by the latter half of the film, when they're taking on "the organization", they don't play it up as much- at that point Steve has to be ruthless to survive. And then he learns about Bishop killing his dad, the audience is freaked out that he might try to backstab Bishop in revenge. But only because he's distraught over the incident, not because he's a psycho.
Which as I said, doesn't he deserve his revenge? But yeah, in both movies, Bishop anticipated Steve trying to kill him, and set a trap. Again, this is where them dropping the whole "everyone has a weakness" thing makes the movie make less sense. In the previous movie, Steve's death was a sure thing, because his weakness was cars, and Bishop knew he couldn't resist driving that fancy sports car he had once Steve offed him. In this one, sure, he thinks its cool, but how would Bishop know he would take a drive in it?
But yeah, in this one, Bishop survives, basically getting away with it. Also, it seems in the original, Bishop was a cold SoB. In this one, he feels guilt for killing Steve's dad. And then when they're trying to find the head bad guy, they go to the house of one of the bodyguards. They take his family hostage, and Bishop threatens that he'll stuff the guy's nubile teenage daughter's arm in the garbage disposal if he doesn't talk! And he does stick her arm in there and its all bloody! Only it was a trick, he ended up tossing a steak in there and that's what got chopped up, the daughter is fine.
Which I figured that would be the case, because since they set up Bishop to be more sympathetic in this one, I doubt they would have had him actually maim a teenage girl!
The action was decent enough. There were moments were people were cracking up more than they should have, but not in a "Its so ridiculously stupid you can't help but laugh", but more in a kinda juvenile way. Which is weird, because it was some chyx who were doing that. So anyways, Ben Foster's character, Steve's first assignment from Jason Statham's character, Bishop, was to kill this other "mechanic" from a rival organization. The guy is like 6'7" and 300lbs, and military trained. So Bishop gives him a plan to take the guy out- Steve gets a chihuahua and frequents the same coffee shop everyday for a few weeks that the guy does.
Now, big guy has two weaknesses- he loves chihuahuas, and he loves the boys. So once that particular part of the plan was revealed to the audience, clue to giggles from people all, "Ha, he has to be gay to get the giant gorilla". Of course, since Steve is a sociopath, and thought it was so awesome when he saw Bishop strangle a guy, doesn't want to do the safe "poison the guy" at the bar method. He wants to do it hands on, even though the guy is nearly a foot taller and has prolly more than a hundred pounds on him. So they go back to his place, where again, everyone giggles because Steve has to flirt with the big gay guy to let him let his guard down. So, the guy is gay, its not that hilarious! (They were also amused by the crazy fat cult leader who likes jailbait girls)
But it does lead to a pretty violent fight, where Steve ends up stabbing the guy several times with a screwdriver and also has to repeatedly bash the guy's head in with a crowbar to finally put him down, which, how could you let you kid watch this?!
Anyways, on to the diffs between the original and this remake. One of the themes of the original was, you can get to anyone if you know their weakness. Bishop mentioned it once in the movie, but it doesn't really come into play here other than with how they got close to the huge-ass guy.
Another is, the relationship between Bishop and Steve's father. In the previous movie, Bishop gets the assignment to kill the father, and does it without a problem. Then he meets Steve at the funeral, is for some reason intrigued at how much of a narcissistic sociopath he is, and takes the kid in. In this one, the main bad guy ends up tricking Bishop into killing the father, and feeling sorry for Steve, takes him in to teach him the trade to give him focus. Well, that and he feels guilty because Harry treated Bishop more like a son than his actual son, plus, when Bishop killed him, the organization must've seized Harry's money, as Steve was basically left with nothing. In both versions, Steve is unaware of Bishop's role in his father's death when Bishop takes him in.
In this version, Steve figures it out, and then tries to kill Bishop in the end. In the original, Steve is a homicidal maniac and wants to be number one, and offs Bishop to be top dog, he doesn't even find out about Bishop killing his father. And I think the latter is a better theme. Because as it is, Bishop comes off as kinda a dick. He killed the guy's father, granted, he was tricked into it, but doesn't Steve deserve his revenge? I mean, we get hints that Steve is a crazy, violent eff in this one- he lost a previous job for beating the crap out of someone, has restraining orders against him from old gfs, he screws up a couple of jobs because he wants to kill a bunch of people over Bishop's quick and easy approach.
But by the latter half of the film, when they're taking on "the organization", they don't play it up as much- at that point Steve has to be ruthless to survive. And then he learns about Bishop killing his dad, the audience is freaked out that he might try to backstab Bishop in revenge. But only because he's distraught over the incident, not because he's a psycho.
Which as I said, doesn't he deserve his revenge? But yeah, in both movies, Bishop anticipated Steve trying to kill him, and set a trap. Again, this is where them dropping the whole "everyone has a weakness" thing makes the movie make less sense. In the previous movie, Steve's death was a sure thing, because his weakness was cars, and Bishop knew he couldn't resist driving that fancy sports car he had once Steve offed him. In this one, sure, he thinks its cool, but how would Bishop know he would take a drive in it?
But yeah, in this one, Bishop survives, basically getting away with it. Also, it seems in the original, Bishop was a cold SoB. In this one, he feels guilt for killing Steve's dad. And then when they're trying to find the head bad guy, they go to the house of one of the bodyguards. They take his family hostage, and Bishop threatens that he'll stuff the guy's nubile teenage daughter's arm in the garbage disposal if he doesn't talk! And he does stick her arm in there and its all bloody! Only it was a trick, he ended up tossing a steak in there and that's what got chopped up, the daughter is fine.
Which I figured that would be the case, because since they set up Bishop to be more sympathetic in this one, I doubt they would have had him actually maim a teenage girl!
