Review of "The Mechanic"

Jason Statham needs to get a tune-up, switch gears and hit the gas.
"The Mechanic," his latest killing spree dressed up as a movie, has all the explosions, gunfights and acrobatic stunts fans of his action films have come to expect.
But it also has smoldering Ben Foster as his co-star and it could have been, should have been, so much more.
Let's review: Statham surfaced in two Guy Ritchie films — "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and the underrated "Snatch" — where he played an average bloke. But by "The Transporter" he had been transformed into a balding chop-socky action hero.
Since then, he's done efficient low-grade action flicks, gonzo action flicks (the "Crank" movies), choice ensemble roles ("The Italian Job," "The Expendables") and one solid crime caper flick ("The Bank Job"). All his movies probably make money; most could be much better.
"The Mechanic" should have been one of those much better movies simply because of the premise and Foster, who is coming off what should have been a career-changing role in "The Messenger."
Instead, the movie is a series of clumsy moves leading from one fight scene to another in a totally predictable manner.
The fight scenes are fun — Statham really knows how to shoot people when he's not beating them to death, and Foster plays an enthusiastic if consistently sneering student. But director Simon West and the multiple screenwriters don't seem to care at all about motivation or logic.
Statham plays Arthur, apparently the world's top hit man, able to kill you without making it look like murder. He's a cool, unemotional machine.
But after one particularly ugly hit he's approached by Steve (Foster), the aimless son of an old friend. Steve wants to learn how to do what Arthur does.
Knowing full well Steve is a complete hot-head with psychological problems and a temper like Vesuvius, Arthur still agrees to become his mentor.
So the training begins. This is where you'd expect a lot of technical stuff, lessons in humility and precision-thinking, weaponry, etc.
The training consists of Arthur and Steve going out in the woods and blasting away at stuff with their big guns. That's pretty much it.
Then Steve gets his first assignment. He's supposed to quietly kill some guy. Instead, he turns it into a gigantic brawl.
Why would Arthur keep him around? No good explanation is given.
By the time Steve messes up on the next assignment it's easy to think Arthur might just shoot him outright. But no, Foster has a contract and must make it to the movie's end.
The priority here, obviously, is just to move as quickly as possible from one outrageous action scene to the next. This can be done without leaving all sense behind (see last summer's "Salt"), but "The Mechanic" is too slipshod to even bother.
The thing is, Statham is actually darn good at this stuff (although maybe not so good at choosing scripts). He can do macho with a big twist of humor and his fighting skills are top notch. But he seems stuck. It's time to climb the ladder.
Statham's got films with Robert De Niro, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Ian McShane, Javier Bardem and Christopher Walken on the way. Let's hope some of the golden stuff rubs off.
"The Mechanic" may be good enough for Jason Statham fans, but it shouldn't be good enough for Jason Statham.

Review of "Blue Valentine"

There are moments of sheer romantic bliss in "Blue Valentine," but not many.
For the most part, this devastating look at modern romance revolves around bad choices, seething frustrations and good days gone bad. It is an acting showcase for two maverick talents that seems to go beyond mere acting and into another realm of aching revelation.
It's not an easy movie, but it is a powerful, unforgettable experience.
"Blue Valentine" tells the story of Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling), lovers who quickly become husband and wife and then mother and father.
Director-writer Derek Cianfrance flashes back and forth in time with such an abandon that it's sometimes hard to tell what is when, but that experience becomes part of the film's intentional confusion — these people are probably always in love, just as they're always in conflict, conscious or not.
Less-than-ambitious furniture mover Dean meets aspiring nurse Cindy and they quickly fall in love.
But, in the future, we see their strained marriage, Dean's aimless desperation and Cindy's yearning. As the film moves forward from both then and now, love blossoms at the same time it is strangled.
The virtually unknown Cianfrance reportedly spent years getting this film made while earning a living making documentaries. It was time well-spent, especially since it led to Gosling and Williams taking on these roles. Each is frighteningly good — appealing, pained, raw and consumed.
There is one small scene where the young lovers pause at a storefront at night and Dean serenades Cindy on the ukulele while she does a silly tap dance that may be among the most charming interludes ever filmed.
But the dance grows ragged, the song dissonant, and darkness smothers the charm. "Blue Valentine" is as honest, and as terrifying, as love gets.

Review of "The Illusionist"

There are no 3-D effects, no lovable monsters, no memorable songs or cute tykes. Heck, there's hardly any real dialogue.
But the Oscar-nominated "The Illusionist" is animation of the finest kind. A French import that's long on grace notes and wry humor, it eschews flash and opts for heart to great effect.
At the beginning, we are introduced to the Illusionist, a performer who pulls a troublesome rabbit out of his hat, performs mystifying card tricks and generally seems an old — and old school— trouper, traveling about Europe playing everything from music halls to rock shows and weddings.
At one such wedding, he dazzles a drunken Scotsman, which leads to a trip to a remote Scottish village where he performs in a rustic pub. While there, he befriends a lowly cleaning girl, buying her a new pair of shoes.
When he leaves Scotland, the cleaning girl stows away and travels with him. Eventually, she's discovered and he befriends her again, sharing the apartment he rents in a vaudeville hotel filled with eccentric performers.
He has opened up a whole new world to her; it's a world she wants to revel in, and reveling can be costly. He takes up odd jobs so he can buy her things. But in the end, he is an old man, and she is a young girl.Director Sylvain Chomet ("The Triplets of Belleville"), adapting a story by Jacques Tati, doesn't try to avoid the sentiment inherent in all this, but he does spice things up with a colorful array of goofy characters — a foppish rock band, a lonely clown, an upbeat trio of gymnasts — while letting his central characters become more and more real.
We Americans expect dazzle from cartoons; "The Illusionist" trusts in story and connections and quirks that delight even in a tale that aches. This is such sweet cinema.