Mechanic: Resurrection, the follow-up to 2011’s The Mechanic, didn’t need to be a sequel.  Honestly, it didn’t really need to exist in the first place, but here we are, so I might as well review it.

The plot is fairly standard stuff: bad guy kidnaps Arthur Bishop’s (Jason Statham) new girlfriend (Jessica Alba), bad guy blackmails Bishop into doing three assassinations, Bishop carries out assassinations, etc.  It doesn’t really matter; like Statham’s best action films (the Crank and Transporter series) the story is just a vehicle to get to the mayhem.  But unlike those movies, which knew to keep the pace fast and the action frequent, this one drags, mainly thanks to a completely unnecessary love story.  There’s no reason for Jessica Alba not to be Bishop’s girlfriend from the start, but the movie insists on subjecting us to their awkward and unconvincing courtship.

Resurrection picks up a bit after plodding through said love story, shifting the focus to Bishop’s assassinations.  There’s fun to be had in these sequences, which show Bishop’s methodical planning processes followed by their Mission: Impossible-like executions.  Breathing some more life into the movie is Tommy Lee Jones, who shows up in the third act as a far-out arms dealer.  He’s a welcome (if underused) presence here, clearly enjoying himself in a not-so-serious role.

As for Statham, he’s as charismatic as ever, pulling off impressive stunts while conveying an intelligence rarely seen in an action hero.  Too bad the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to his performance.

P.S.  Stay tuned for news regarding the future of Kevin and Vil’s Movie Show.