Movie Review: Killer Elite (2011)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: Gary McKendry  

Starring: Jason Statham, Robert De Niro, Clive Owen, Dominic Purcell  
Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1980, hitman Danny (Jason Statham) quits the killing business after coming face-to-face with the young son of his latest victim. He relocates to Australia and becomes romantically involved with Anne (Yvonne Strahovski). A year later Danny's partner Hunter (Robert De Niro) is held hostage by an Arab sheik, forcing Danny back into action. To secure Hunter's freedom, Danny has to find and kill three ex-SAS members responsible for killing the Sheik's three sons. Danny assembles a team including Davies (Dominic Purcell) and Meier (Aden Young), but ex-SAS soldier Spike (Clive Owen) is deployed by the shadowy Feathermen organization to disrupt Danny's mission.

What Works Well: Inspired by real events surrounding the Dhofar Rebellion, this action thriller reaches for a deeper context than typical efforts while still enjoying well-staged and stunt-heavy action scenes. Set in Oman and England, Danny's exploits cut across Cold War Middle East tensions, deniable military engagements, the battle to control oil reserves, and deposed ruler vendettas. A further layer of complexity is introduced by the need to stage the killings as accidents, and Spike emerging as an atypical counterweight to Danny, cut from the same cloth and as much a pawn as all guns for hire. Dominic Purcell's lackadaisical Davies adds irreverent presence.

What Does Not Work As Well: Robert De Niro is an afterthought in an underdeveloped role, and the attempts at character depth (primarily through Danny's relationship with Anne) are superficial. The bone-crunching hand-to-hand combat scenes yield remarkably minor bruising for the survivors, and the late plot revelations meld into a muddle of murky agendas.

Key Quote:

Danny: War isn't over until both sides say it is.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: A Working Man (2025)

Genre: Action  

Director: David Ayer  

Starring: Jason Statham, Michael Pena, David Harbour  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: In Chicago, ex-Royal Marine Commando Levon Cade (Jason Statham) is a site foreman working for the family construction business owned by Joe Garcia (Michael Pena). When Joe's college student daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped, Levon reluctantly agrees to find her. He discovers a powerful underworld Russian gang, with Dimi (Maximilian Osinski) as the unhinged scion dabbling in the human sex trade. Jenny fights for her freedom against her captors as Levon works his way through numerous thugs to mount a rescue.

What Works Well: The co-writing team of director David Ayer and Sylvester Stallone deliver as-promised-on-the-label action. Jason Statham injects just enough engagement in the familiar role of the quiet ex-special forces soldier nudged back into action, and the rest flows to familiar beats of unrealistic but well-staged action, sardonic humour, and oily baddies hissing threats and meeting their demise to a soundtrack of quips. Jenny as the victim is provided with spunk, and Dimi makes for an effectively despicable but well-dressed villain.  

What Does Not Work As Well: From opening to closing credits, this is nothing if not predictable, complete with Levon's oh-so-familiar broken marriage and attempts to be a good dad to his young daughter, and the ex-army buddy (David Harbour) with a stash of weaponry that could equip a robust militia. The more serious dialogue exchanges are often painfully inept.

Key Quote:

Levon: Let's play.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Beekeeper (2024)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: David Ayer  

Starring: Jason Statham, Josh Hutcherson, Jeremy Irons, Phylicia Rashad, Minnie Driver  

Running Time: 105 minutes  

Synopsis: In Massachusetts, the elderly Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) commits suicide after losing her life savings to a phishing scam. Her tenant Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a beekeeper, retired CIA Agent, and expert assassin. He vows revenge and destroys the responsible call centre, attracting the attention of Eloise's daughter Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), an FBI agent. Adam's vengeance unleashes escalating violence connected to an evil conglomerate led by the snotty Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson) and retired CIA Director Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons). 

What Works Well: Jason Statham's dry confidence as a killing machine capable of dispatching countless enemies provides potent fuel to power the action. Innovation mixes with acidic humour as the body count mounts and Adam Clay works his way up the food chain to confront dizzying heights of power. David Ayer maintains both momentum and coherence in choreographing action scenes on the edge of a sharp knife, and the cast is peppered with quality and equipped with quips to augment the sparkling production values. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The violence is eventually mind-numbing, and both the conspiracy details and the army-of-one shenanigans follow an exponential curve towards preposterous excess.

Key Quote:

Adam Clay: I'm a beekeeper. I protect the hive. Sometimes I use fire to smoke out hornets.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Wrath Of Man (2021)

A heist thriller, Wrath Of Man bolsters basic macho action with a sharp attitude and an engaging if unnecessarily convoluted plot.

In Los Angeles, a heavily armed gang violently robs a Fortico armoured truck full of cash. The two guards and one civilian are killed. The company, managed by Terry Rossi (Eddie Marsan), beefs up resources and training to try and discourage similar incidents. Experienced guard Patrick "H" Hill (Jason Statham) is one of the new recruits, and veteran Fortico employee Haiden "Bullet" Blaire (Holt McCallany) introduces him to the company's protocols. Another guard, "Boy Sweat" Dave Hancock (Josh Hartnett), resents H's aloof attitude.

H has an investigative agenda and wastes no time imposing his aura and seducing the only female guard Dana (Niamh Algar). He impresses everyone by single-handedly thwarting an attempted heist, then gains legendary status when his sheer presence scares off yet another gang. In flashbacks, his backstory is revealed: he has murky connections to both the underworld and enforcement agencies through the FBI's Agent King (Andy Garcia), and a very personal score to settle. Meanwhile, a gang of ex-military veterans led by Jackson (Jeffrey Donovan) and including the bloodthirsty Jan (Scott Eastwood) plots an audacious job.

Director and co-writer Guy Ritchie re-teams with star Jason Statham to create a high energy yet brooding adaptation of the novel Cash Truck by Nicolas Boukhrief. The four cinematic chapters titled A Dark Spirit, Scorched Earth, Bad Animals, Bad and Lungs, Liver, Spleen, Heart complement Wrath Of Man's titular mood and hint at the playful rage within. The movie rises above stock revenge cliches thanks to high production values, a clever flashback structure, a threatening music score, stylish action scene staging, and Statham's enduring charisma.

An inside mole, gangland wars, revenge most cold, and a half-baked enforcement operation combine for a thick plot featuring four separate groups competing for screen time. The armoured truck guards, Hill's core underworld colleagues, the FBI, and Jackson's crew create too many men (and just one woman) without enough screen time to properly connect them. The Scorched Earth chapter particularly suffers, violence layered upon violence while the dynamic between the Hill and Jackson factions fails to properly latch.

The crucial heist resulting in three deaths kicks-off the drama in the opening scene (filmed in one take and mostly from inside the truck), and is a worthwhile centrepiece. Ritchie returns to the event twice more from different perspectives to fill in the main character's roles. Several other action scenes inject regular doses of excitement, none better than Hill finally revealing his shooting skills and cool temperament by foiling a robbery in progress. The final climactic heist runs ragged and gets close to chaos, but with Statham in command, Wrath Of Man is in good hands.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Parker (2013)

A revenge action thriller, Parker plugs into Jason Statham's crackling persona but otherwise offers placid engagement.

Professional thief Parker (Statham) joins a gang led by Melander (Michael Chiklis) to rob a State Fair in Ohio. They get away with close to $200,000 each, but Melander insists they use the money to seed a much bigger job. When Parker refuses he is shot and left for dead.

He survives and through his contact Hurley (Nick Nolte) learns Melander's gang is connected to powerful Chicago-based mobsters and is now planning a big jewel heist in Palm Beach, Florida. Parker safeguards his girlfriend Claire (Emma Booth) and secures false identity papers as a wealthy Texan. To find Melander's Palm Beach hideout Parker pretends to be interested in buying a house and connects with struggling real estate agent Leslie (Jennifer Lopez). She spots an opportunity for a big commission and maybe more as Parker plots his revenge.

An adaptation of the book Flashfire by Donald E. Westlake with a script by John J. McLaughlin, Parker's plot carries similarities to earlier Westlake adaptations including Point Blank and Payback. Despite generous injections of unnecessary gore and Statham's charismatic presence, director Taylor Hackford fails to refresh the familiar story of a principled crook intent on recovering his fair share from double-crossing ex-colleagues.

Among the criminals, the script demonstrates no interest in complex character definitions or development. Parker is an honourable thief with strict adherence to a code of conduct, while all the thick-necked bad guys are designated as thick-necked bad guys. The rest of the movie concerns itself with decent-enough but soulless and mostly joyless action set-pieces, with just one or two moments of wit cracking a smile.

Jennifer Lopez as Leslie arrives relatively deep into the movie carrying a sob story consisting of a scoundrel ex-husband, bankruptcy, and the ignominy of living with her insufferable daytime soap-loving mother. Lopez lands with the thud of misplaced star power: Leslie initially belongs in a rom-com, and her subsequent plotting to carve a cut for herself out of Parker's quest for revenge (and maybe find a husband as part of the bargain) is more appropriate for a light-hearted crime misadventure. Meanwhile Parker is engaged in brutal fights to the death with a merciless assassin involving bloody limb perforations and bodies flying off balconies.

Parker seeks pulpy vengeance from previously squeezed ideas, but only succeeds in spraying flavourless juice in uncoordinated directions.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Homefront (2013)

A basic action drama about an ex-government agent tangling with small-town drug pushers, Homefront brawls through predictably satisfactory territory. 

In a messy operation, New Orleans-based Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) undercover officer Phil Broker (Jason Statham) disrupts the methamphetamine lab of gangster Danny T (Chuck Zito). Disillusioned with unnecessary bloodshed, Phil retires to the small rural Louisiana town of Rayville to raise his young daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) in peace.

Maddy tangles with the school bully, and Broker humiliates the bully's parents Cassie and Jimmy Klum (Kate Bosworth and Marcus Hester). Cassie turns to her brother and local meth manufacturer "Gator" Bodine (James Franco) to settle scores. Gator and his girlfriend Sheryl Marie (Winona Ryder) uncover Broker's background and conspire with the imprisoned Danny T to cause more trouble for Broker and Maddy.

A solid, unspectacular, and eminently calculable drama, Homefront delivers exactly what should be expected from a film starring Jason Statham with a screenplay by Sylvester Stallone. Regardless of the plot's progress, about every 10 minutes Broker gets to display his superior combat skills, taking on one or many foes with a near-certain outcome: Broker standing tall, everyone else crumpled in a heap. It's an almost comforting level of normalcy in action film making.

Stallone adds enough notes of humanity between Broker and his daughter Maddy to surround the skull bashing with familial warmth. And the character of drug addicted redneck mama bear Cassie, with Kate Bosworth in excellent form, injects a welcome variability.

But otherwise director Gary Fleder manages to bungle many of the action scene with barely rational angles and lazy editing, while the plot fills several cliche bingo cards: father and daughter lamenting the loss of the idyllic wife/mother, the horse-riding child placed in harms way, the pet in peril, the Black sidekick (Omar Benson Miller), the corrupt local cop (Clancy Brown), and the hints of a romance between the tough protagonist and the perky school psychologist (Rachelle Lefevre, way too perky for this backwater of a little town). 

Star charisma helps navigate the routine terrain, Jason Statham's stoic heroism and Dave Franco's slimy villainy creating worthy adversaries. Winona Ryder is too good for the fast-fried role of a trashy errand girl on the cusp of finding a conscience. Homefront wins no awards for originality, but is too busy breaking bones to care.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Bank Job (2008)

A bank heist thriller, The Bank Job is a slick, polished and multi-dimensional crime adventure.

It's the early 1970s in London. British intelligence services are eager to steal scandalous pictures harmful to the royal family from Black activist leader and criminal Michael X (Peter de Jersey). Intelligence agent Gale Benson (Hattie Morahan) infiltrates the gangster's inner circle, and model Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) is recruited to help plan a bank heist targeting the safe deposit box where the pictures are stashed.

Martine turns to ex-boyfriend Terry Leather (Jason Statham), a petty criminal and struggling used car dealer. He forms a break-in team including buddies Kevin (Stephen Campbell Moore) and Dave (Daniel Mays) as well as a tunneling expert and a suave front man. But a bank vault contains many secrets, and soon Terry finds himself in the middle of a mess involving violent pornographers, corrupt police officers, and compromised politicians.

Remarkably based on real events, The Bank Job boasts a cool vibe and quality execution. Without scaling any superlative heights, director Roger Donaldson weaves an excellent story featuring overlapping sordid secrets and shady lowlifes up to no good. The character-rich script co-written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais develops multiple people and story lines with smooth, almost effortless, efficiency within a bouncy early 1970s London aesthetic.

The careful set-up pays off when all the nefarious agendas collide. Despite being generally clueless in the science and art of bank heists, small-time hood Terry Leather and his motley crew break into the Lloyds Bank on the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road, but not before a ham radio operator picks up the thieves' walkie-talkie transmissions all but describing every step of their crime. 

Terry and his men only want the money and jewellery, Martine is just interested in the compromising photos, but their haul also happens to include evidence of deep-rooted police corruption and politicians behaving really badly, setting in motion a manic final 30 minutes. A classic mop-up operation swings into action, endangering some lives and forever changing others, with Terry walking a tightrope to find an exit.

Jason Statham as Terry manages to maintain the calmest head when mayhem erupts, and benefits from a thin but adequate family backstory to subdue his screen persona's more outlandish attributes. Saffron Burrows is less comfortable as a made-up character awkwardly connecting intelligence services with scrappy hoods. The rest of the cast is filled with character actors getting on with the job, David Suchet most prominent as nightclub owner/gangland boss Lew Vogel, inspired by Bernie Silver.

Sassy and swift, The Bank Job is a successful swindle.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Snatch (2000)

A madcap crime comedy, Snatch buzzes with derisive energy and restless mischief but veers towards overindulgence.

An enormous 86-carat diamond is stolen in Antwerp and Franky Four-Fingers (Benicio del Toro), a thief and gambling addict, transports it to London where he intends to connect with jeweller Denovitz (Mike Reid). Soon disparate underworld characters throughout London are chasing the priceless gem. Crooks Vinny, Sol and Tyrone are hired by Boris The Blade to steal the diamond, and Cousin Avi (Dennis Farina) flies in from New York and gets Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) involved.

Meanwhile, Turkish (Jason Statham) and his buddy Tommy (Stephen Graham) are mid-level hustlers who unintentionally get embroiled with Irish gypsies, specifically bare-knuckle brawler Mickey O'Neill (Brad Pitt), as they try to participate in illegal boxing bouts organized by intimidating crime boss Brick Top (Alan Ford). As the worlds of gambling, brawling, swine-feeding and gem-pursuing violently collide, desperation mounts and dead bodies litter the streets.

Director Guy Ritchie follows up 1998's Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels with more of the same. Snatch is more polished and ambitious, but rides the same wave of masculinity run amok, the characters living in their own hierarchical foul-mouthed world detached from normalcy. Powered by audaciously edgy camera angles and a pessimistic but bouncy soundtrack of 1970s British music, the scramble for a gigantic diamond is an epic battle royale among hard heads. 

The first half is stronger, with sharp character introductions, wry nicknames, and humour derived from Turkish and Tommy's bemusement as they enter ever deeper into Brick Top's orbit and butt heads with the impenetrably accented Mickey. The Russian Boris and his three bargain-basement bandits are a riot, their attempted hold-up of an illegal bookie joint a legendary botch.

But having done a lot of hard work, Ritchie allows Snatch to sag in a case of too much attitude and insufficient depth. The characters are starved of opportunities to evolve and get lost in an indistinctive jumble of shoot-outs and car crashes. The level of dynamism is maintained, but in the absence of empathy the action is more mechanical than potent.

From the large cast, Brad Pitt emerges with the most memorable performance, his closed-captions-required rendition of a brawler exuding coiled charisma. In a small but pointy role, Vinny Jones leaves a brooding impression as Bullet Tooth Tony.

Snatch may lack grounding, but boasts an unyielding desire to thrill.



All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Jason Statham

All movies starring Jason Statham and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Snatch (2000)

The Italian Job (2003)

Collateral (2004, cameo)

The Bank Job (2008)

Transporter 3 (2008)

The Mechanic (2011)

Killer Elite (2011)

Parker (2013)

Homefront (2013)

Spy (2015)

Wrath Of Man (2021)

The Beekeeper (2024)

A Working Man (2025)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

A raucous multi-heist crime comedy, Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels throws everything at the screen. A lot of it sticks, but the film often threatens to disintegrate under its own weight.

In London, friends and small time criminals Eddy (Nick Moran), Tom (Jason Flemyng), Soap (Dexter Fletcher) and Bacon (Jason Statham) pool their money and plan to win big at an illegal poker game run by "Hatchet" Harry (P.H. Moriarty). Meanwhile, Harry instructs his chief henchman Barry "the Baptist" (Lenny McLean) to steal two precious rifles from a bankrupt estate. Big Chris (Vinnie Jones) also works for Harry as an uncompromising collections man, and he incongruously completes his assignments with his young son Little Chris.

Barry hires bumbling thieves Gary and Dean to pull off the rifle heist, and thanks to their incompetence the stolen rifles end up with Eddy's acquaintance Nick "the Greek" (Stephen Marcus), infuriating Harry.

The poker game goes badly for Eddy, and he is forced to come up with a lot of money in a hurry. An opportunity arises when he eavesdrops on his neighbours, hardened criminals led by Dog (Frank Harper) and planning a heist of a marijuana grow-op run by mellow potheads. Eddy and his friends plot to steal from Dog, an ill-advised move to begin with, but things get a lot worse when crime lord Rory Breaker (Vas Blackwood) turns out to be the main victim of the marijuana theft, and sets out to extract bloody revenge.

The directorial debut of Guy Ritchie, who also wrote the script, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels is an enjoyable over-the-top thriller, filled with colourful characters, bizarre incidents, madcap stand-offs and cacophonous shoot-outs. The film is set in a twilight zone free from any law enforcement intervention, where everyone is a crook with varying degrees of violence propensity, and almost everyone is male.

Ritchie's criminals speak with heightened self-awareness, the dialogue a stream of witty put-downs peppered with cockneyisms, north versus south disparagement and never ending vulgarity. The action scenes combine a high bullet count with punctuations of humour. The cameras look away from the bloodiest carnage, Ritchie more interested in intricate set-ups and immediate aftermaths, or capturing in slow motion some of the weirder action on the edges of the main event.

But it all does get to be too much. Between Eddy's crew, Harry's shop, Dog's gang, the weed growers, the idiot thieves and Rory's operation, Ritchie crams six separate groups of guys into his movie. With a relatively economical running time of 106 minutes, narration is pressed into service to try and sort out who's who, the screen time is fragmented into narrative blurs, and no characters emerge as anchors. The film becomes a case of more is less, as there is only so much joy to be squeezed out of random guys threatening other random guys with painful exits.

Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels is stylistically enjoyable, the film's elevated energy just about overcoming a case of too many crooks.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Spy (2015)

An action comedy, Spy serves as a star vehicle for Melissa McCarthy and offers travelogue-style Bond-parody antics with an extra dose of fun vulgarity.

Susan Cooper (McCarthy) is a frumpy CIA agent reduced to a supporting role, staying safely behind a desk to support the dashing Bradley Fine (Jude Law) as he tackles daring missions across the globe. While searching for a missing suitcase nuke, Fine is killed in action by the glamorous Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), who is attempting to sell the weapon to the highest bidder. CIA boss Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) learns that Rayna has uncovered the identity of numerous CIA agents and agrees to allow the unknown Cooper to go into the field, much to the chagrin of highly-strung star agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham).

Assuming various identities Cooper tracks down terrorist middleman Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale) in Paris, and then saves Rayna's life in Rome. Rayna is suspicious but accepts Cooper into her inner circle as she travels across Europe connecting with global mobsters. Cooper tries to locate the bomb without blowing her cover, a job not made easier by a rampaging agent Ford.

Directed by Paul Feig, Spy offers up exactly what it promises. The idea of an insecure desk-bound support agent being suddenly thrust into a field role to stop the sale of a weapon of mass destruction is a perfect fit with McCarthy's burst-out-of-a-shell persona, and the film carries enough female empowerment messaging to ride over the bumpier patches. Matching agent Cooper against a female antagonist in Rayna is a clever touch, allowing the battle between women to draw out contrasts in sophistication, attitude and grit.

Cooper is provided with the briefest of background sketches, but enough to make the point: 10 years prior she was a top trainee, but the suave and self-centred Bradley Fine convinced her to remain as his support rather than take the lead role, a jab at men standing in the way of women reaching their potential. Cooper also laments the formative messages she received from her mother encouraging meek submissiveness.

The action scenes are plentiful, laced with violence and profanity but keeping humour as the primary target and often hitting the mark. It's mostly frantic, breathless stuff, more concerned with rushing around Europe than common sense, a female Bond on laughing gas.

McCarthy surrounds herself with excellent talent, Jude Law and Jason Statham nailing their roles with Statham getting a fair share of the best lines as an agent with one too many hissing stories about his incredible feats from missions past. Rose Byrne provides the necessary condescending counterbalance, her bemused verbal sparring with McCarthy a constant source of comic tension.

Filled with irrelevant but funny sidebars including a CIA HQ infected with bats and mice, Spy is polished silliness.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Italian Job (2003)

A revenge heist movie, The Italian Job tries hard but cannot elevate itself from the realm of the average. The best and most original scenes feature Mini Coopers racing around demonstrating their agility, and the solid cast maintains interest, but otherwise the movie feels like a second visit to well-worn tourist traps.

Master thief Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) and his mentor John Bridger (Donald Sutherland), an expert safe cracker, lead a gang that includes Steve (Edward Norton) and Rob (Jason Statham) in the daring capture of a safe full of gold in Venice. But just when they think that they are set for life, Steve betrays the rest of the gang, killing John and leaving the others for a dead. But they survive and recruit John's daughter Stella (Charlize Theron), a professional safe security expert, for a revenge mission: to steal the gold back from Steve's mansion in Los Angeles. By creating traffic jams and using nimble Mini Coopers to navigate around the gridlocked city, Charlie and his buddies hope to recover the gold, avenge John's death, and escape to a better life.

Only vaguely inspired by the 1969 Michael Caine film, the 2003 version of The Italian Job can be sarcastically labelled a two-hour commercial for the Mini Cooper, and the little car does offer the best entertainment on show, zipping through traffic, diving into impossibly tight parking spots, climbing and descending stairs, and racing through sewers and pipes. To the benefit of the movie, director F. Gary Gray mercifully minimizes computer-generated gimmickry, allowing the stunts to be contained within the bounds of realism.

As for the humans, Donald Sutherland is as usual the most watchable member of the cast, but delivers his increasingly customary sage-man-killed-early routine that has become something of a trademark late in his career. Mark Wahlberg appears too likable and smart to be involved in a life of crime, while Charlize Theron fights the good fight but fails to convince that a professional security expert can suddenly join a criminal gang in a dangerous mission to avenge a father who generally neglected her.

It is left to Edward Norton as the double-crossing Steve and Jason Statham as ace driver Handsome Rob to add some much needed menace to the otherwise too-cheerful band of robbers, Norton memorable as a greedy but insecure villain, while Statham can actually be imagined as a ruthless thief in real life.

Despite some interesting locations and dynamic cinematography, The Italian Job is mostly pleasant, a curious criticism, but the lack of any kind of an edge or genuine tension simply defangs the movie, much like automatic transmission sucks the life out of a Mini Cooper.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Mechanic (2011)

A remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson flick, the 2011 version of The Mechanic adds plenty of panache to no great effect. The gaping holes in the plot breed rapidly to create undignified and tattered shreds where the idea of a good movie once resided.

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a professional assassin working for a shadowy organization headed by Dean Sanderson (Tony Goldwyn), in the business of eliminating assorted high-level targets for profit. Dean's partner and Bishop's mentor and confidant is the elderly Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland), confined to a wheelchair but still sharp of mind, although always neglectful of his black sheep son Steve (Ben Foster).

After dispatching a drug lord, Bishop is startled when his next assignment proves to be disposing of Harry. Dean confirms that Harry is double-crossing the organization, and Bishop proceeds to dutifully execute his one friend in the world. Steve does not know who killed his father, but decides to enter the business, and Bishop takes him under his wing. As they develop into a tandem duo of death, Steve starts to suspect that Bishop did indeed kill his dad, while Bishop uncovers evidence that Dean played him for a fool to justify Harry's assassination. Revenge becomes top of mind for both men.

Whereas The Mechanic's opening sequence meticulously tries to create the aura of assassinations planned with care to the last detail, the rest of the movie quickly disintegrates into wild shootouts and messy killings to which no enforcement authorities ever respond or follow-up. Bishop is always remarkably several steps ahead of everyone else, and easily dispatches hordes of well-armed assassins in action sequences designed for the non-discriminating market. Ben Foster is no match for Jason Statham, and disappears into the contrived shell of a man failing miserably to appear intent on avenging a father who never cared for him.

Donald Sutherland rolls in on a wheelchair, adds undeserved weight to a few scenes, and cashes in his cheque before the halfway point, doubtless happy not to have to hang around as the rest of the humourless mayhem mechanically plays itself out.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Transporter 3 (2008)

There is something to be said for delivering exactly what is expected. The Transporter series is all about breathless none-too-serious action sequences, and Transporter 3 delivers.

There is no shortage of one-on-many martial-arts-infused and exquisitely choreographed fights, and several car chases that start by straining the limits of physics and then veer in the direction labelled "wild".

At the middle of it all is Jason Statham as Frank Martin, the professional Transporter, this time in charge of delivering a package consisting of Valentina (Natalya Rudakova, interpreting the role as a grown-up Lolita). She is the daughter of Leonid Vasilev, an Eastern European government minister being threatened by an evil consortium intent on dumping environmentally toxic waste in his country.

Martin and Valentina must race across Europe under the threat of being blown to small pieces by wrist-mounted bombs if they stray too far from Martin's Audi, the car being easily the second most important cast member after Statham himself.

Luc Besson's script has enough of a plot to almost justify all the mayhem, and director Olivier Megaton not only has the coolest name of any action-movie director, but also directs with enough pizazz to blur out the large gaps in logic.

For example, ask not why the men hired by Vasilev to rescue his daughter instigate a murderous high-speed car chase during which they machine-gun the car she's in. The chase is too much fun to make sense, and ultimately, a large dose of enjoyable nonsense fun is what Transporter 3 delivers, wrapped in a hyper-polished package.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.