Sex depicted here is brutish, anonymous, perfunctory - of the 1970s men’s magazine variety. Goldwyn doesn’t convey as much menace as he did back in “Ghost” decades ago, so the whole villain side of the equation is weak. Casting middling actors in these roles doesn’t help.
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In finding people who “deserve” their fate, the script points Bishop and Steve at a hulking gay hit-man, saying “he likes young boys.” But if the nearly-30 Steven is his type, that’s not exactly true, is it? You’re just playing into audience homophobia.Ī bloated, perverse TV preacher is another target.
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The bad taste the movie leaves in your mouth starts with some of the victims. “Revenge is an emotion that can get you killed.”īut when Bishop finally questions why he had to shoot Harry and becomes a target himself, he breaks his own rules and drags the kid along with him for his revenge spree. Steve learns life lessons - “It’s stupid to kill someone when you have a motive, like putting a bullseye on your back.” Far better to do it Bishop’s way - get paid to kill strangers. “I want to know what you know,” the son says. As long as the kid doesn’t figure out the teacher snuffed his dad, things’ll go fine, right? Steve is played by Ben Foster (“3:10 to Yuma,” “The Messenger”), a violent, drunken drifter whom Bishop trains out of guilt. But then their boss (Tony Goldwyn) orders Bishop to take out Harry, and that’s when things get complicated.īishop takes on Harry’s “troubled son” as a protege, an apprentice. Every hit this man does will involve victims who struggle and die with a death rattle and who spatter their blood on the lens.īishop’s handler is Harry, played with gruff professionalism by Donald Sutherland, who mastered a wheelchair for the part. The violence here isn’t going to be neat and pretty. West (“Con Air”) sets the tone right off. The film opens with a gripping Bond-like gambit as a Colombian drug lord is drowned by a scuba-diving Bishop while the man takes a swim in the pool inside his fortress mansion. It’s a fairly faithful remake of the original, with Statham starring as Albert Bishop, a high-priced hit-man who speaks in euphemisms. It’s a modestly effective but jaw-droppingly violent picture, one that begins with promise but weasels its way into unlike-ability. Because Statham wouldn’t be Statham without Statham shirtless. We’re treated to the Statham stare, the Statham strut.Īnd the Statham sternum. Jason Statham is put on fine display in Simon West’s remake of the Charles Bronson hired-killer thriller, “The Mechanic.”