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Starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn and Christa Campbell. Directed by Simon West.
Never saw the 1972 Charles Bronson original, but it feel more like a remake of a 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson film. Jason Statham is one of a handful of credible action heroes out there, but he's no hero here.
He's Arthur Bishop, a "mechanic", another name for assassin, and one day his assignment is to kill his mentor (Donald Sutherland). Rather than say no and try to bring down his employer who'd dare make such an order, he follows through. He kills him. Ugh.
This is in the first 15 minutes. Then he meets his mentor's ne'er-do-well son (Ben Foster) and for some reason, the son wants to become an assassin. Bishop decides to mentor him, train him to become an assassin too. Not much hesitation either. "Sure, I'll train you to kill people."
We know where this movie must eventually go. Statham can only do so much to distract the audience. We can take the mildest of comforts that everyone they're killing is worse, but it's just another amoral disposable action movie, with nothing unique or creative enough to warrant it being sought out over any number of other choices.
Starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn and Christa Campbell. Directed by Simon West.
Never saw the 1972 Charles Bronson original, but it feel more like a remake of a 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson film. Jason Statham is one of a handful of credible action heroes out there, but he's no hero here.
He's Arthur Bishop, a "mechanic", another name for assassin, and one day his assignment is to kill his mentor (Donald Sutherland). Rather than say no and try to bring down his employer who'd dare make such an order, he follows through. He kills him. Ugh.
This is in the first 15 minutes. Then he meets his mentor's ne'er-do-well son (Ben Foster) and for some reason, the son wants to become an assassin. Bishop decides to mentor him, train him to become an assassin too. Not much hesitation either. "Sure, I'll train you to kill people."
We know where this movie must eventually go. Statham can only do so much to distract the audience. We can take the mildest of comforts that everyone they're killing is worse, but it's just another amoral disposable action movie, with nothing unique or creative enough to warrant it being sought out over any number of other choices.
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