Movie Review - The Mechanic

When I went into this movie, I did not expect much from it.  I expected the basic action movie that thinks plot is that thing that you put in to kill time between brawls, shootouts, and explosions.  In this respect, I was pleasantly surprised when this movie's writers turned out to actually be able to write.  The movie had a legitimate plot that only gave way occasionally to holes and clichés.
The movie stars Jason Statham, the big guy who looks like a cross between a gym teacher I had in middle school and an egg who has been having a particularly bad day, as a "mechanic" a.k.a. hitman.  Now while most movies go for the the 'killer with a conscience' thing so you can sympathize with the lead, this film goes for the 'killer who doesn't have a conscience because he KILLS PEOPLE FOR A LIVING' character design because the writers probably noticed that if a hitman had a conscience, he would be a pretty terrible hitman.  It also co-stars Ben Foster as Statham's apprentice, who, from what I gathered, decided to become a hitman because he really didn't have anything better to do at the time.
The movie starts with Stathm preforming one of his assassinations, and then goes through a short montage of him putting away all his planning material away as he explains that he's a hitman and he kills people and he guesses thats kind of cool but who really cares, just in case the viewer didn't catch that because they spent the first 5 minutes of the movie in a coma.  The film then introduces Statham's one and only friend, who you don't see again until Statham kills him because this other guy said so and Statham, as we've already gone over, just has trouble giving a shit.  Later, Statham takes on Foster, his friend's son. on as an apprentice, because when someone really wants to get revenge on the guy that killed his father, and you're that man, the smartest idea is to teach him how to kill people.  I mean, he'll never figure it out and try to avenge his father's death by killing you right? riiiiiiiight.  They do a couple of assignments together, Statham giving lessons like 'revenge is never a good motivation' and 'never let them know you're coming', and then he finds out that his boss betrayed him by making him kill his friend, and Statham tells his boss that he is going to go kill him to get revenge.  He really is a front-runner for good decision-maker of the year.
Aside from that, Foster totally botches one of the missions and then they continue on because hey it's not like actions having consequences is a key component of the movies plot OH WAIT YES IT IS.  Still, this is one of the few movies that I can honestly say is worth the ticket price.  It's an action movie that remembered that it's a movie and not just an hour and a half long explosion/bullet-storm, and even though I spent most of the movie forecasting the end, I was still caught mildly off-guard when the actual ending came about.


tl;dr:

Plot: 7/10
Acting: 8/10
Soundtrack: 9/10
Effects: 9/10
Overall: 8.25/10