Simply Perfect

Memorable, crazy movie

Great Film overall

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

An existential story of an ageing hit-man. It is set in many exotic locations including italy. Charles Bronson's house in the film is something else. The supporting actors were cheesy. Jan Michael Vincent (who plays the hit-man's protégé) cannot hold his own when Bronson is around. The action scenes were too over the top when you consider that the leading man was going through some sort of personal crisis. The ending is foreshadowed in the middle of the film when Bronson takes Jan Michael to a judo match. Jill Ireland makes a token appearance. THE MECHANIC looks quite good on blu ray. Especially the beach and sea scenes filmed in Italy.

I'd not watched this one before enjoying the hell out the Jason Statham / Ben Foster - Simon West remake, that was made a few years back.My exposure to Bronson were his movies in the 60s and the 70s, but I had not watched any recently, other than 'The Great escape', 'Once upon a time in the West', 'The magnificent 7', 'The Dirty Dozen', in all of which he was part of an ensemble cast, and stood out in any case, but the true viewing experience of a stand-along Bronson movie was something I had experienced a decade or so previously, if not more. First off, this flick is sparse in terms of prod design, using the motif, less is more. And how true that is. All the excesses of the remake seemed very loud and pretentious to me, while watching the set-pieces and the planning that went into keeping this simple.I also did not know that director Michael Winner made this with Bronson before they went full-iconic with 'Death Wish'. Nice preparing ground for that.For those who know the plot, knowing that this is set in a world of elite super-assassins that spend time preparing their kills, and report only to uber-businessmen/politician conglomerates, who're never seen and always behind-the-scenes, who're the puppet-masters, so to speak, won't be a surprise, since the largely-seen remake covered similar ground. However, what made this relatively more refreshing and more sane, is the choice this makes in keeping those characters in the background, instead of bringing forth the Tony Goldwyns of the day, for Statham and Foster to 'take care' of at the end.This choice made, seemed respectful of the idea that thrillers should at least try to keep the plot and their characters grounded, in order for the audience to empathize and get on the side of their anti- heroes, which otherwise might be a difficult task, like it is with every mainstream flick one encounters these days.The best part/s? The 2 chases, one bike chase, and the other by car, sans CGI, pure stunt-work. The plot, and the grounded-ness of it. The performances, all alpha. The tangential turns into meta-weirdness, esp. the scene set in a bungalow. The chance to compare how inferior the remake is to the original. Sad for the Statham flick, since I thought it was good before watching this. The fantastic pre-climax ending.I do hope they redeem themselves with the sequel to the remake, but do not have the required confidence that they will, considering West also has not signed back on (that might be a good thing, considering 'Wild card', but who knows).All in all, worth a watch, or maybe even a revisit.

If you are a Bronson fan you will enjoy The Mechanic. Arthur Bishop is seemingly a chess playing Paladin type with thinner mustache, a journeyman plotting and mapping his hits while sipping his wine and living in his estate. Next minute he is in a seedy part of down dressed as Bronson typically dresses and living in a dump.The dump has a pretty good view of his target. The target a guy I could kill in two minutes. Yet the kill is so elaborate you may never drink English breakfast tea again.We see that Bishop is a mess and is lonely. He relieves his loneliness by visiting a call girl who acts out a sad fantasy. Bronson is vulnerable in this movie like never before.JMV is great looking and annoying to be the perfect foil. Educated types will tell you this is "the sorcerer's apprentice". I just enjoyed most of the movie and seeing Bronson off his A game. I will see the remake with Jason Statham but I'm not drinking any Italian red.

Michael Winner is not very popular these days. Some see him as a mediocre film maker. I would disagree with that: Winner has made some very good films and some which are not memorable so I would rank him with Val Guest as a very talented director who also works as a craftsman. The Mechanic is a good example of Winner at his best. He tells the story of a lone hit-man who seems to have no feelings at all and operates detached from the outside world almost like a Samurai. However, below that surface we see a very lonely man who pays a hooker to write him love letters and who suffers from depression and anxiety. He is a man of contradictions, a cultivated lover of classical music and fine wine and also ruthless killer. My only misgiving about the film is that I just don't see that degree of being torn between two extremes in Bronson's performance. I wonder what an actor like Clint Eastwood would have made of that role. Anyway, this leads to him adopting a seemingly kindred spirit as an apprentice to murder. Ironically, he is the son of his last victim. That is seen as breaking the rules by the organisation he seemingly freelances for and he realizes that he is not as independent as he thought he was. So both men are hunted and eventually set against each other. Bronson loses but the motive is not revenge, simply the lust to kill. The film then ends with a very twisted ending that makes you wonder whether Bronson's character really committed suicide through a third person. The story is originally and well paced with some spectacular action scenes. So all in all the film is both intelligent as well as full of suspense. Very, very watchable!