At the Movies with Fatwayne

My favorite action star is back, doing what he does so well to endear himself to me. I’m talking about Jason Statham who once again portrays a hard as nails hit man, or mechanic if you’d prefer. He has been on the big screen rather frequently of late with his Transporter series as well as
The Expendables. He plays pretty much the same type of character, apparently without fear of being typecast. That is just fine with me because this is the way I like it.

Statham plays Arthur Bishop this time out in a remake of Charles Bronson’s 1972 film of the same name. He is lethal, competent, reliable and extremely brooding. He is not much of a talker but more a man of action. His business contact, Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland) is marked for termination by a morally corrupt group whose only interest is money. Bishop discovers that his friend McKenna had been set up as an excuse for his murder. Once on the trail of the top man you know that Bishop will get his guy no matter how many goons he has to wade through. After all, that is what provides the action in an action movie!

Along the way, Arthur Bishop takes on an apprentice in the person of Steve McKenna (Ben Foster) who is the son of his now dead friend Harry. This is the single most glaring flaw in this movie. Why would a persnickety loner take on a looser like Steve? Guilt could be the primary impetus but even this didn’t make much sense to me. Arthur goes about teaching Steve the nuances of his trade and they become a potent team.

Another thing that I enjoyed was the fact that the movie was shot in New Orleans. If you are lucky enough to live here you will take pleasure in recognizing many familiar sites – sites that are not the usual shots you see in films produced in the Crescent City.

So we have action, adventure, betrayal, gunfights and car chases. What else can you ask for in a Jason Statham fun fest of a movie? My advice: Go for it!

Rated  – R  -

Fatwayne’s Rating  -  

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