"The Mechanic" - in theaters

I really wanted to love this movie.

But alack! I was disappointed.

"The Mechanic" is the story of Arthur (Jason Statham), an assassin for hire who is the best in the business. That is, until his company tricks him into killing his only friend, Harry (Donald Sutherland). Harry is Arthur's handler, and the company tells Arthur that Harry is into some dirty stuff. Without checking into it, Arthur shoots Harry in the chest. But unlike his other kills, Arthur feels guilty. So when Harry's son, Steve (Ben Foster), comes back into town to deal with Harry's affairs, Arthur takes him under his wing.

See, Steve has some serious anger management problems. He is a psychopath, hell bent on hurting anyone having to do with Harry's passing. But it's more than that. He just likes to hurt other people, which Arthur recognizes and tries to harness.

So it goes on with Arthur and Steve killing more people for money until they decide to go after the guys that wanted Harry dead to begin with. It's a lot of action and some brutal fight scenes, not to mention some sex scenes as well (which really have no place in the plot). Normally I dig this, but this film was grim. Hardly any laughter, and I don't think Statham smiled more than twice the entire time.

Ben Foster is absolutely disgusting as Steve. He's an angry, sleazy dude with a scuzzy beard, and he kind of makes your skin crawl. It's almost as if he was channeling his character from "3:10 to Yuma" but forgot that this wasn't the old West. Blegh.

On the CWeave scale, I rate this movie a 5. I really have no desire or need to see it ever again, even if Jason Statham kicks butt. I'd rather see him as Handsome Rob from "The Italian Job" than this joker.