Jason Statham

Mechanic: Resurrection

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mechanic: Resurrection
  • IMDb: link

Mechanic: ResurrectionThe follow-up to 2011’s The Mechanic returns Jason Statham as retired hitman Arthur Bishop. After faking his death, Bishop has lived the good life in Rio until a courier (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam) for an old frenemy (Sam Hazeldine) throws Bishop’s life into chaos. After falling for the honeypot (Jessica Alba) sent in to earn his trust, Bishop is blackmailed into committing the impossible assassinations of the world’s three largest arms dealers (Femi Elufowoju Jr., Toby Eddington, and Tommy Lee Jones) in a matter of days when he fails to prevent her kidnapping.

Better than the first film, director Dennis Gansel relies too heavily at times on close shaky-cam quick-cut action scenes. The script by Philip Shelby and Tony Mosher is more convoluted than necessary for a rather straightforward action film. Because of this the story requires a bit more set-up, following the open action sequence, before the movie really gets going. The set-up is really just an excuse to throw Statham into action scenes in multiple exotic locales (Thailand, Brazil, and Australia). On that level it works pretty well, especially during it’s best scene involving Bishop’s murder by swimming pool.

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Spy

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Spy
  • IMDb: link

SpyMelissa McCarthy stars as a CIA analyst forced into the field when an arms dealer (Rose Byrne) with knowledge of all the CIA’s operatives acquires a nuclear bomb and plans to sell it on the black market. I’m far from McCarthy’s biggest fan whose poor script choices have made me more than once refer to her as the female Kevin James. However, with Spy the comedienne’s talents are put to good use by writer/director Paul Feig which is odd because the script shares quite a bit in common with the far-less enjoyable Get Smart reboot from a few years back. Along with McCarthy, Feig balances the talents of Byrne, Jude Law, and a very funny Jason Statham as the alpha-male spy who is his own biggest fan in a comedy far funnier than I was expecting.

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Furious 7

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Furious 7
  • IMDb: link

“Cars don’t fly.”

Furious 7The latest entry is neither the best (Fast Five) nor the worst (2 Fast 2 Furious) of the franchise. Taking place after the events of Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7 introduces Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) as the brother of Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), who the team took down in the last movie, and the man responsible for killing Han (Sung Kang) in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Now Shaw is targeting Hobbs (Dwayne “It’s Okay to Call Me The Rock Again” Johnson) and every member of Dominic Toretto‘s (Vin Diesel) team.

Despite Paul Walker‘s death during filming, Brian O’Conner‘s role in the film isn’t truncated thanks to the use of CGI and a little trick photography involving his two brothers. The film ends with a nice farewell for its fallen star although, despite discussion of making more Fast & Furious films, the character isn’t killed off on-screen making you wonder what kind of role Brian could possibly play going forward.

As with all the previous movies, the strengths of the latest film are its stunts which get larger and more ridiculous. Like the last film, this one stretches all credibility during its climax.

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Homefront

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Homefront
  • IMDB: link

HomefrontAdapted from Chuck Logan‘s novel of the same name by Sylvester Stallone, Homefront stars Jason Statham as former DEA Agent Phil Broker who moves with his young daughter (Izabela Vidovic) to a small town in the Louisiana Bayou after Broker’s last undercover assignment leaves both the former agent and young Maddy with prices on their heads by a biker gang out for blood.

Better written than many of Statham’s films, Homefront casts Kate Bosworth and Marcus Hester as a quarrelsome couple whose son gets into an altercation at school. Not letting the matter rest the mother enlists the help of her villainous brother (James Franco) which leads to all kinds of hell eventually erupting around the sleepy small town. Playing on basic themes of revenge and an unbeatable but reluctant hero unwilling to be pushed too far, the film works as a very well-trod B-movie action-thriller.

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Parker

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Parker
  • IMDB: link

ParkerJason Statham stars as Donald Westlake‘s Parker, a career criminal and anti-hero who keeps to his own code and often, as in this case of this adaptation of Westlake’s novel Flashfire, has to fight for what’s owed him after being double-crossed on the latest score. Statham isn’t the first actor to portray Westlake’s character (Lee Marvin, Jim Brown, Robert Duvall, Peter Coyote, Mel Gibson all played character over the years), but Parker is the first where the title character keeps the name.

The movie begins with a heist of $1,000,000 from an Ohio State Fair by Parker and a group of thieves (Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pierce, Clifton Collins Jr., Micah A. Hauptman) he has never worked with before who take his cut from the job and leave him for dead on the side of the road. The rest of the film revolves around Parker following the group to Palm Beach and shadowing their latest score with the help of a local Realtor (Jennifer Lopez) before finally taking his revenge.

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