The Mechanic
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Movie Reviews of The Mechanic
Movie Review: Awesome as Usual!
Summary: 5 Stars
Saw this film as a teenager and wanted to remember a great day with my dad.Movie Review: A killer of a thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
The Mechanic aka Killer of Killers is surprisingly good and, unusually for Michael Winner, also surprisingly well directed. A one-time Cliff Robertson vehicle (which at least explains the pipe Charles Bronson smokes throughout the film) and a clear influence on the Wachowski Brothers later script for Assassins, it sees Charles Bronson as the mob's most assured and ingenious hitman for some reason taking on an apprentice, attracted perhaps by his sociopathic indifference to death. The first half of the film is so sharp that it's a shame the rest of the movie starts down a more conventional road, but the action is well-handled, with a couple of way above average stunts involving a crashing motorbike and, later on, a car pushed off a mountain road that is more comprehensively trashed on the way down than you've ever seen in a film before or since: this one doesn't need to go up in a fireball to convince it's occupant isn't walking away.
Unfortunately the sorcerer's pathological apprentice is played by terminally smug Jan Michael Vincent (the man who sued the paramedics who saved his life after a drunken crash for not managing to do so without damaging his vocal cords): ideal casting, perhaps, but he's definitely a below-par Dennis Quaid act as an actor who seems to think he's good looking enough not to have to at least try to act. Equally unfortunately it also features the inevitable Jill Ireland (the star's wife and director's former girlfriend: that must have made for some interesting conversations on the set), albeit only for one scene, and for once there's a rather clever and perfectly valid reason for her bad acting. It doesn't make her big scene any less painful to watch but at least it stops it from doing any real damage to the film. If at times it feels like a more ambitious film may have been lost in rewrites, there's still a pleasingly nasty ending and any film where the first 15 minutes are played without dialogue gets extra points in my book.
MGM/UA's Region 1 disc may only offer a reissue trailer as an extra (when the title was changed to Killer of Killers to boost business from people who might have mistaken the original title for a car chase movie) but it has a fine widescreen transfer as well as a fullscreen version of the film.
Movie Review: Exciting and often funny 70s action/buddy movie with a nice ending twist
Summary: 4 Stars
Two years before DEATH WISH , Bronson played a completely amoral hit-man in THE MECHANIC, a first class action/thriller that for the most part lacks any of the troublesome moral questions in the later film - but only because "morality" really isn't part of the equation for Bronson's Arthur Bishop, a high-priced "mechanic" who ends up taking on younger, cockier and too-enthusiastic Steve McKenna (Jan-Michael Vincent, less wooden than usual here) as his protégé shortly after he kills McKenna's father (the always wonderful Keenan Wynn).
The best part of this film is the opening set-up as we see Bishop calmly and methodically set up an extremely complicated hit in an apartment building in New York, staging it from across the street. He goes about the job very much as a calm man of business, and one of the neatest aspects of the film to me is that while he never really loses the facade, it's clear that in taking on young McKenna - who he has formed a bond with over a couple of social outings after the older McKenna's funeral - he has allowed a potentially fatal emotional relationship to obscure his clear vision.
The film is basically structured as a series of fairly elaborate action set pieces with the developing relationship between the older and younger assassins taking place in between. All of the action sequences are very well put together and play out in some interesting and unexpected ways; after the opening scene my favorite is probably the motorcycle race which comes a little over halfway through the film, fascinating in part because it's Bronson who takes off after the escaping victim and not the expected speed-freak Vincent.
I don't want to spoil the ending, which has one of the funnier twists I've seen in any action movie, so I'll just say that I for one never saw the last couple of scenes coming. As I mention in my review for DEATH WISH, director Michael Winner really knows how to plot a simple, linear action piece for all it's worth and without allowing too many distractions to creep in. The music, even more excellent than in the later film, sounded to me like Jerry Goldsmith in experimental-percussive Planet of the Apes mode, but in fact it is by Jerry Fielding.
Movie Review: Surprisingly good
Summary: 4 Stars
In spite of this film being over 30 years old (1972), it holds up extremely well as a gritty actioner. One of the key elements in an action film is editing and the director, Michael Winner, is working here with a terrific film editor. Editing is what gives a film its pacing, its momentum, and there are few categories of film other than action thrillers for which editing is as important.Bronson is great here because his dialogue is really lean and mean. There's a terrific scene with a woman who seems to be his lover but really isn't. The revelation in that scene (no spoilers here!) reinforces the main character's inner workings which are both tough and, to put it bluntly, twisted.
What also gives this film its power is the superb script by Lewis John Carlino, writer of a number of thrillers. This is one of Carlino's earliest film scripts and he does an outstanding job--striking a perfect balance between the protagonist's cynical irony and the flat out action that is an inevitable part of his work as a mechanic--a killer for hire.
He goes after a number of targets--each with different circumstances, each done differently. The variety of killing situations is also a critical component adding to this film's power.
A young Jan-Michael Vincent is on hand here in one of his earlier films. Though not as convincing as Bronson, he nevertheless goes through his paces well as Bronson's "associate". Keenan Wynn, as Vincent's father, is good, too, and the other supporting cast does exactly what needs to be done to make this a thriller that does not disappoint.
You know it's good when you truly cannot wait to see what happens next, when the characters' situations propel you forward, when every element of the film--dialogue, acting, editing, music (a GREAT score by Jerry Fielding), and ultra-sharp directing makes you hungry for every next minute.
Highly recommended for thriller junkies. One of Bronson's very best.
Movie Review: Charles Bronson at his absolute best
Summary: 4 Stars
The Mechanic is a great Charles Bronson movie that features a role that was made for him. Arthur Bishop is a meticulous hitman, a mechanic, who prepares to make his hits with an incredible sense of detail. Whoever hires him knows the job will get done. After several successful hits, Bishop takes a young protege under his wing who happens to be the son of one of his victims. Bishop teaches the hitman trainee everything there is to know about the business, causing his employers to become upset with him. From the opening silence(it is 16 minutes before a word is spoken) to the shocking/surprising ending, The Mechanic has it all. Plenty of action, including a very good motorcycle chase, and a very tense Jerry Fielding score help to make this movie a must-see. Don't miss one of Charles Bronson's best movies.
In one of his best roles and one of my favorites, Charles Bronson stars as Arthur Bishop, the cold-blooded, ruthless hitman who meticulously plans his every hit. Jan-Michael Vincent is surprisingly good as Steve McKenna, Bishop's young protege trying to become as good a hitman as his elder. Bronson and Vincent work very well together as Bishop attempts to teach McKenna the ways of the profession. Keenan Wynn makes a brief appearance as "Big Harry" McKenna, Steve's father and a past associate of Bishop's father. Bronson's wife Jill Ireland and Linda Ridgeway also star. The DVD offers both widescreen and standard presentation along with a theatrical trailer. With Bronson turning in one of his best roles as ruthless killer Arthur Bishop and Jan-Michael Vincent giving great support, how can you go wrong? Check out The Mechanic!