Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Tweekums Arthur Bishop is a hit-man who works with care; every detail is planned out and when he strikes the target will certainly be killed but it won't be identified as a murder. After observing one of his hits we see he go to see his boss, a man he has known all his life and clearly considers a friend. He is asks to look into a problem. Shortly afterwards he is given his next target; his boss! They may be friends but that doesn't stop him doing his job. After the funeral Steve, the man's son, asks for a lift home; they get talking and over a series of meetings Steve gets to know what Bishop does and eventually asks if he can work with him. He accepts and they start training; their first hit together is successful but ends up messier than Bishop's employers would have liked… they are also displeased that he took on an apprentice without asking their permission. Bishop is given another job, this time in Italy… there is a complication though; he has learnt that Steve has been given his own job… to kill Bishop!This is a solid thriller that doesn't rush things; not a word is spoken in the first ten minutes during which time we see Bishop setting up a hit in intricate detail. This ends in explosive style. There are more moments of action as Bishop and Steve engage in more jobs; this is especially true of the job on Italy which features shootings, an impressive chase along a winding coast road and more explosions. There are some disturbing moments; most notably when it looks as if Steve and Bishop will just look on as the former's girlfriend attempts suicide. The twist of having Steve targeting Bishop wasn't a huge surprise but once we, and Bishop, knew about it the tension was raised nicely. They must work together one is constantly wondering when Steve will turn on his mentor. Michael Winner directs in a no-nonsense manner and is willing to go long periods without dialogue. Charles Bronson does a fine job as the very precise Bishop and Jan-Michael Vincent contrasts nicely as Steve; a man who seems to enjoy his work. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the genre.

morrison-dylan-fan Despite a family friend being a big fan of their work,I've never had the chance to catch a glimpse of Michael Winner/Charles Bronson's collaborations.Checking updates on Netflix UK,I found out that one of their team-ups was going to be taken off the site in a few days,which led to me fixing things up with the mechanic.The plot:Cutting out any connection to a social or personal life, Arthur Bishop trains himself to be a mechanic/hit-man for a group which demands the very best from their assassins. Successfully following an order to kill a member of the group,Bishop attends the funeral of his victim. During the funeral,Bishop crosses paths with the victims son Steve McKenna. Finding McKenna to have a detachment to life that matches his,Bishop begins to think that McKenna has the tools to be a fellow mechanic.View on the film:For someone who always sounded like the life of the party in interviews,director Michael Winner displays an unexpected ear for silence,with Winner breaking Bishop's merciless Film Noir loner veins with extended sequences featuring no dialogue,which strike at the cold, soulless emotion Bishop feels towards his job. Whilst screenwriter Lewis John Carlino complained over the hard-nosed script being softened,Winner keeps the Noir chill at the frozen heart of Bishop, shining in stylish scatter-gun tracking shots keeping track of the mechanical nature of Bishop's kills.Bringing an outsider in to join Bishop and sending them both to Italy,Winner pushes the Noir shoulder aside for a dash in Italian Crime,that despite bringing some frantic chase moments in,does leave to a pause in looking at the empty reflection of Bishop. Opening Bishop's bag of tools for the final,Winner whips the title back to the dour Noir soul of Bishop,in a richly cynical ending that delivers a burning parting shot from Bishop. Stuck with a smug Jan- Michael Vincent as Steve McKenna, Bronson cuts a note of pure Noir class as Bishop. Slithering in the shadows of his victims, Bronson brilliantly expresses in silence the coldness Bishop feels towards each murder,as Bishop sets his target on another mechanical kill.

jcohen1 If you are a Bronson fan you will enjoy The Mechanic. Arthur Bishop is seemingly a chess playing Paladin type with thinner mustache, a journeyman plotting and mapping his hits while sipping his wine and living in his estate. Next minute he is in a seedy part of down dressed as Bronson typically dresses and living in a dump.The dump has a pretty good view of his target. The target a guy I could kill in two minutes. Yet the kill is so elaborate you may never drink English breakfast tea again.We see that Bishop is a mess and is lonely. He relieves his loneliness by visiting a call girl who acts out a sad fantasy. Bronson is vulnerable in this movie like never before.JMV is great looking and annoying to be the perfect foil. Educated types will tell you this is "the sorcerer's apprentice". I just enjoyed most of the movie and seeing Bronson off his A game. I will see the remake with Jason Statham but I'm not drinking any Italian red.

Michael_Elliott Mechanic, The (1972) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Cult action picture about an aging hit-man Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) who prefers to work alone but even he knows that nothing lasts forever so he decides to take a young kid (Jan-Michael Vincent) under his wing and teach him the trade. Things start off smoothly until some wise guys find out and they don't appreciate Bishop bringing someone in without their permission. THE MECHANIC isn't the greatest film Bronson made during the 70s but it remains a fairly interesting one and there's no question that it features some nice performances and some very good direction. I think most people will be disappointed if they go into this film expecting a flat out action picture because it pretty much stays away from the predictable standards of the genre and instead tries to tell a real story about these two men as well as their profession. The opening sequence runs over fifteen-minutes and contains some of the best drama of any action movie from this era. There's not a line of dialogue and instead we just see Bronson stalking his target, putting his plan into action and then executing it. Director Winner does a terrific job with this sequence because he not only builds up suspense but he also manages to wink at the viewer because you expect the hit to go a certain way and then we get hit with something else. I thought the relationship between Bronson and Vincent was a pretty good one as both men sell their parts well enough and the screenplay gives them a father-son relationship that really works. Bronson was born to play this type of role and he certainly doesn't disappoint. Vincent is also quite good in his role and we even get Keenan Wynn in a quick bit and Jill Ireland shows up for one scene. Even though the film goes for a lot of drama we still get some excellent action pieces. There's quite a few gun battles and a few excellent explosions. One of the highlights is a scene where a car gets pushed off the cliff, which has to be one of the greatest examples of this from any movie in history. Cars have been going off cliffs since the silent days but the execution here and how they were able to capture it on film is just terrific. Fans of Bronson's Cannon period might be shocked to see this type of action film but it certainly has a European flavor and this works well for the film.