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defrogOkay, I’m pretty much done with the Singapore updates. But as long as we’re here, and since I post pointless movie reviews anyway, I might as well tell you about the films I saw on the plane trip there and back.
The Mechanic
It says a lot that the synopsis of this in the in-flight entertainment guide was, “Jason Statham’s in it.” It also possibly says a lot that I kept thinking, “This is the kind of film Charles Bronson used to do,” until I realized that it was actually a remake of a Charles Bronson movie (albeit, to be fair, one I only saw once, and that was in the late-80s).
So yes, it’s the story of Bishop, a hitman (“mechanic”) who specializes in making hits look like accidents who is assigned to kill his mentor Harry, then decides to train Harry’s loose-cannon son Steve to become a mechanic, with Steve unaware that Bishop killed his dad. And while remakes almost always leave a bad taste in my mouth, this isn’t all that bad. True, Statham is no Bronson, but he doesn’t have to be – Statham has long since proven to me he can pull off tough-guy action films, including this one.
On the other hand, the problem isn't so much the actors as the overall film, which lacks the B-movie charm of the original and runs on a script that really doesn’t add much new to the original idea, apart from one key plot twist that actually doesn’t make any sense. (Also, the original has a braver ending.) Statham and Ben Foster (playing Jan-Michael Vincent’s role) make it watchable, but I can’t imagine it’s destined to be the classic that the original already is.
Rango
Animated film with yet another fish-out-of-water tale – in this case a pet chameleon who ends up stranded in the Mojave desert in a town populated by desert creatures where water is currency, and pretends to be a tough drifter named Rango, only to have to live up to his fake rep when he’s appointed sheriff.
It’s basically The Shakiest Gun In The West cribbing from Chinatown with a dollop of Clint Eastwood film references and a side order of mescaline. Which sounds great in theory, but the weakness in the whole formula (apart from the standard roller-coaster slapstick these films always have) is the title character, who is pretty by-the-numbers as well-meaning-goofball-becomes-reluctant-hero types go (Johnny Depp’s efforts notwithstanding).
But apart from that, it's a story told well, and I’ll give it points for taking more chances than the average CGI toon in terms of both surrealist humor and actually killing off a couple of characters.
Fill yr hand,
This is dF
The Mechanic
It says a lot that the synopsis of this in the in-flight entertainment guide was, “Jason Statham’s in it.” It also possibly says a lot that I kept thinking, “This is the kind of film Charles Bronson used to do,” until I realized that it was actually a remake of a Charles Bronson movie (albeit, to be fair, one I only saw once, and that was in the late-80s).
So yes, it’s the story of Bishop, a hitman (“mechanic”) who specializes in making hits look like accidents who is assigned to kill his mentor Harry, then decides to train Harry’s loose-cannon son Steve to become a mechanic, with Steve unaware that Bishop killed his dad. And while remakes almost always leave a bad taste in my mouth, this isn’t all that bad. True, Statham is no Bronson, but he doesn’t have to be – Statham has long since proven to me he can pull off tough-guy action films, including this one.
On the other hand, the problem isn't so much the actors as the overall film, which lacks the B-movie charm of the original and runs on a script that really doesn’t add much new to the original idea, apart from one key plot twist that actually doesn’t make any sense. (Also, the original has a braver ending.) Statham and Ben Foster (playing Jan-Michael Vincent’s role) make it watchable, but I can’t imagine it’s destined to be the classic that the original already is.
Rango
Animated film with yet another fish-out-of-water tale – in this case a pet chameleon who ends up stranded in the Mojave desert in a town populated by desert creatures where water is currency, and pretends to be a tough drifter named Rango, only to have to live up to his fake rep when he’s appointed sheriff.
It’s basically The Shakiest Gun In The West cribbing from Chinatown with a dollop of Clint Eastwood film references and a side order of mescaline. Which sounds great in theory, but the weakness in the whole formula (apart from the standard roller-coaster slapstick these films always have) is the title character, who is pretty by-the-numbers as well-meaning-goofball-becomes-reluctant-hero types go (Johnny Depp’s efforts notwithstanding).
But apart from that, it's a story told well, and I’ll give it points for taking more chances than the average CGI toon in terms of both surrealist humor and actually killing off a couple of characters.
Fill yr hand,
This is dF
