Jason Statham has been one of cinema’s top-tier ass kickers for 20 years and counting, and he’s managed to maintain such a high level of visibility by making smart creative and commercial decisions. For every original action thriller that he lends his talents to, you can guarantee that the sequel to an established property won’t be too far behind.
He’s made three Transporters, a pair of Cranks, a fourth Expendables is on the way, Meg 2: The Trench is currently shooting, the Fast & Furious 9 post-credits scene set him up for a Fast X return (while a second Hobbs & Shaw remains in some form of development), but you could make a well-founded argument that 2016’s Mechanic: Resurrection may be the most forgettable of the lot.
Arriving five years after the opener, which was itself the remake of a 1972 Charles Bronson vehicle, Statham’s Arthur Bishop is now living the quite life, at least until an old adversary kidnaps his girlfriend and blackmails him into murdering an African warlord, a human trafficker, and a gun runner as the conditions of her release. As you do.
A 30 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 40 percent user rating places it among the bottom rung of the actor’s filmography, even if it did turn a tidy profit at the box office by earning $125 million on a $40 million budget. Much like Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, and Gerard Butler, though, Statham’s back catalogue will always find a way to thrive on Netflix.
As per FlixPatrol, that’s been proven true once more, with Mechanic: Resurrection currently nestled comfortably on the platform’s global charts, just in time for the weekend.