Mechanic: Resurrection

After a season of sagas, revivals, and franchise hubris, the flatness of a Statham sequel inspires its own kind of trash nostalgia.

Mechanic: Resurrection aims to be no more satisfying than an oil change, and no one seems more bored by that prospect than Jason Statham.

Digital photography, with its limited ability to capture rapid movement, renders the close combat choppy and disorienting, and none of the kills is especially memorable.

A flat and tedious action film.

The Stath, alas, is following orders throughout: given his revelatory comic turn in last year's Spy, he may yet return to material that allows him to raise smiles and smash heads, but this shrugging afterthought isn't it.

For an actor who, with the "Transporter" films, once imbued the action genre with a new sense of possibility and winking sophistication, Mr. Statham is on cruise control.

The plot was really convoluted.

For the most part, it's not worth it.

Don't expect quality acting or narrative consistency or anything like that, but if you want to see a bunch of faceless bad guys get thoroughly [Jason] Stathamed... then you'll dig this one.

His [Statham] indisputable charisma is unable to overcome the film's many weaknesses.