As you’re looking through the dozens of action movies available to stream on Netflix, you may find yourself wondering how you should choose which movies are actually worth your time. Because the service is both churning out new titles regularly and also grabbing archival titles from the history of cinema, narrowing down your options can be difficult.
If you’re looking for a solid action movie, though, The Mechanic might be one of your best bets on the streamer. The movie, which spawned an entire franchise, stars Jason Statham as Arthur Bishop, one member of an elite group of assassins who usually carries out his missions with precision. When he is asked to kill his friend and mentor, though, things get personal. Here are four reasons you should check the movie out while it’s on Netflix.
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It’s a more violent Statham than you might be used to
On-screen violence can be shocking and grotesque in the wrong circumstances, but The Mechanic revs you up for the level of gore and bloodshed that the movie contains. If you’re used to seeing Statham knock heads together in a more PG-friendly format, The Mechanic may be shocking to you.
Some of the critics who reviewed the movie at the time said that the film was too violent and gory for its own good, but with some distance, the movie’s bloodshed feels like just the cure you might need for blockbusters that choose to ignore many of the real, dramatic costs of violence.
Ben Foster gives an excellent villain performance
If you’ve ever seen Ben Foster in anything, you likely know that he’s an actor who is willing to give his all. Here, as Bishop’s ally and then (spoiler alert) eventual enemy, we get to see Foster uncork in a way that Statham usually does not.
Not every movie needs the amount of energy that Foster brings here, but part of the reason The Mechanic is so fun is because Statham’s much more reserved, steely performance pairs perfectly with the off-the-wall energy that Foster is bringing to his part. Their story of allies who become enemies is a classic action movie trope, but it works in part because of Foster’s performance.
Jason Statham gets to be a little more serious
Somewhere along the way, Jason Statham became a parody of himself. There’s nothing wrong with that. His performance in Spy, in which he is playing a bloviating paragon of masculinity, is great, and he’s also pretty solid in the Fast & Furious franchise. Here, though, Statham gets to be a genuine action star instead of a parody of one, and it turns out that he’s pretty good at that too.
Statham gets at the grief and conflict motivating his character, and while The Mechanic is an action movie, it tends more toward the John Wick side of the spectrum. Statham proves that he works in that mold as well.
It doesn’t overstay its welcome
If an action movie is genuinely great, there’s no such thing as a running time that’s too long. Having said that, most action movies staple on a few too many scenes focusing either on the characters, or on set pieces that start to feel boring or repetitive.
At just 92 minutes, The Mechanic doesn’t have that problem in the slightest. Instead the movie feels remarkably tight, and it’s clear that director Simon West knew exactly how to tell the story he wanted to tell without adding on too much unnecessary padding.
The Mechanic is now streaming on Netflix.