Mechanic: Resurrection

First Hit:  Entertaining enough to make it fun to watch.

I recall the first “The Mechanic” film I saw in 1972, which starred Charles Bronson as Arthur Bishop. I liked the concept of an, almost heatless, assassin for hire. Bronson didn’t talk much and let his body, action and eyes do his speaking for him. He was rough but very thoughtful in his preparation to carry out his mission.

In 2011 “The Mechanic” was remade with Jason Statham playing the role of Arthur Bishop. The plot of these two films were closely aligned and Statham did a really good job of recreating this role that Bronson played so effectively. He also brought a glint of heart to the role.

In this reprise of the same character, Bishop has attempted to hide away and live a quiet life in Rio de Janeiro. However, he gets a visit from an agent of Crain (Sam Hazeldine) who wants Bishop to do 3 more assassinations. Bishop refuses and heads to another small shack in Thailand.

Here Mei (Michelle Yeoh) helps him get settled. When a tourist name Gina (Jessica Alba) gets in trouble Bishop saves her but it is all a plot by Crain to get Bishop do to the assassinations. Leveraged, Bishop ingeniously does his work but also goes after Crain.

The setups of the assassinations are interesting and engaging. The overall plot is a bit weak, but the way the actors play their roles keeps the whole film entertaining and the audience engaged.

Statham is a great choice for this character as he leads with intelligence before brawn. You also get to see that Bishop cares. Alba is OK and helped the plot along. Yeoh was good as the person Bishop once helped and will do anything to help him. Hazeldine was sinister enough. Tommy Lee Jones has a minor, yet key role as one of Bishop’s targets but becomes an ally. Philip Shelby and Tony Mosher wrote an engaging script and didn’t push plot devices too far. Dennis Gansel did a good job of keeping the film moving and made this film an extension of the Statham’s Mechanic film.

Overall:  This movie was action packed and engaging.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

First Hit:  Visually interesting and fun, however the storyline was very week.

This film started out lost and ended up lost. Between these points, it seemed to find a path, get some traction, then get lost with extra crap.

Was this a story about Ava (Eva Green) or Senator Roark (Powers Boothe)? Or was this film about Marv (Mickey Rourke) or Nancy (Jessica Alba)? Or was this film about Dwight (Josh Brolin) or Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)? Although these stories were all inter-relational, it didn’t have a strong enough focus to keep me fully engaged.

Visually though, at times this film was outstanding. The use of black and white graphics, black and white film, and then adding splashes of color; a dress, hair, lipstick, bottle of booze, whatever – it added the kind of interest to keep me watching the film.

Green was pretty good as the femme-fatal however I think the storyline let her down. Rourke was virtually unrecognizable (probably on purpose) but he was good as Marv the brutish indestructible hard charging protector. Boothe was great to see again and his role was perfect Boothe. Alba had a somewhat minor role and I didn’t like it. She was good, but the role was pretty weak and I lacked the ability to care about her character. Gordon-Levitt was the role I enjoyed the most. I would have rather have the film be about his story more than the side story it ended up being. Brolin was in a hero role and he always does this well even in a weakly scripted film like this. Bruce Willis had an OK role as a ghost that assists Alba with her mission. Dennis Haysbert was fantastic as Manute Ava’s bodyguard. His voice and presence in the film was really strong. Frank Miller wrote a disjointed script and I cannot figure out what the point of the film was. That he promoted this film with his name is egocentric driven and disappointing.  Miller and Robert Rodriguez both directed this film and if the script had been better the film might have been better.

Overall:  Although the visualizations were fun, this film is forgettable.

Valentine's Day

First Hit: A funny, cute and lighthearted romp with a huge cast ensuring its popularity.

Did I say huge cast? Here is a partial listing: Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, Taylor Swift, Julia Roberts, Patrick Dempsey, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Alba, Hector Elizondo, and Anne Hathaway and that’s not everyone who is in this film.

This cast alone would drive people to the box office but it is also a Garry Marshall film and it opened on Valentine’s Day weekend so it was almost guaranteed to be successful. I saw this with my partner on Valentine's Day and there were lots of couples in the theater.

From an entertainment point of view, this film was also a success. The story lines are varied; from old time lovers still deepening and rekindling their love to young lovers discovering their next steps. There is a counterpoint of people who struggle and don’t particularly like Valentine’s Day.

The film begins with a man asking a woman to marry him, she says "yes" then has a change of heart. It segues into a boy living with his grandparents and having a crush on his teacher and he wants to give her a valentine but the teacher is deeply involved with a man whom she discovers is married.

There is the story of a mother returning from her overseas Army assignment to be with her love for just 18 hours before she has to return to her assignment. Then there is a football player announcing he is gay which will allow him to be public with his relationship.

These and many more stories were packed into this film. It would be hard to not relate to at least one of them in some way.

I won’t comment on all the performances but bring up a couple which I thought were worth noting. I enjoyed Biel being more physical in her comedy than in previous films. She was very enjoyable to watch. I enjoyed both Garner and Hathaway in their respective roles as teacher and part time phone sex operator. Marshall doesn’t take a lot of risks in this film (which is true to form for him) but he doesn't need to, the story and actors bring it all together under his guiding hand.

Overall: This was a well marketed film that delivered enough laughs and story line to keep me interested for the entire film.

The Love Guru

First Hit: A comedy that is rarely funny and very haphazard in execution – one of the worst Myers films ever.

In interviews Mike Myers comes across as intelligent and thoughtful. Therefore, how he comes up with a film like this is beyond me.

Here he plays Guru Pitka, the Love Guru and in second place in the Guru standings behind Deepak Chopra (how can a Guru be in second place?). Guru Pitka wants to be the number one Guru but just doesn’t have enough of a following to be on Oprah’s show which he believes will put him over the top.

Jessica Alba, who plays a hockey executive, needs to find something to help her star player (Romany Malco) who is down in dumps and cannot play hockey any longer because his girlfriend has left him for Jacques “Le Coq” Grande, played by Justin Timberlake.

Jacques happens to be a hockey player as well and it just so happens they are going to be the opposing teams in the Stanley Cup Finals. Because Alba admires Guru Pitka’s teachings, she hires him to cure the star hockey player’s love life with former girlfriend. She believes with this change he will play great hockey, she’ll be the toast of town, and she is willing to pay Guru Pitka 2 million dollars if it works.

Pitka’s agent says that if this happens, Oprah will book him on her show. Between the beginning and end of this film we are bombarded with nearly 1,000 bad junior and high school level jokes, all poorly executed along with an obvious ending to the film.

Marco Schnabel either didn’t have the chops or authority to make a decent film out the talent available. Although Jessica Alba is watchable, the best thing in the film was the over the top performance by Justin Timberlake.

Overall: Definitely not something that I could recommend seeing for any reason.