By the mid-2000s Dolph Lundgren mature enough to direct his own films. "Mechanic" 2005 was his second work as a director. The first was "Defender", filmed a year earlier. It’s curious - in category “b” at one time there was a Jason Statham. But the Briton had yet to retrain as a mechanic, taking over the baton from the deceased Charles Bronson, and a defender, but for now he plunged headlong into the dust-free work of an auto courier in the sequels "Carrier". All works are good, choose according to your taste. But about the defenders and others later, now we need to sort out the mechanics.
Once again Dolph plays a Russian character. There was a boxer Ivan Drago in "Rocky 4" (1985), there was a special forces soldier Nikolai Rachenko in "Red Scorpion" (1988), now, I ask you to love and favor Nikolai Cherenkov. A special forces soldier, this time a former one, but now living a peaceful life with his family in some village and working as a car mechanic. His knowledge and skills will come in handy once per film to fix a rotten “loaf” with the help of women’s stockings. How lucky it was that there was a woman in the car at that time, and even in stockings.
The clichéd image of a taciturn, unemotional giant with a stern face, who “eats for five, works for ten” smoothly migrated here almost unchanged from his (and not only his) action films twenty years ago. Well, the mid-2000s, it was necessary to think through a better image, a little more modern - that would have been enough. Although, for example, here Dolph does not drink vodka at all. When they offer it to him, he refuses. But all the other Russian characters are drinking bitter tea with an elephant.
The film starts with an action sequence, where the main character loses his wife and daughter in a gang war. Having grieved his own, he embarks on the path of revenge. The next episode demonstrates the end of this path, its apogee, if you like. That is, no plan, preparation or other “goodies”, only the very finale, where the highest point is a shot in the face of the main villain. Revenge has been accomplished. But it was not there. The villain turned out to be tenacious. But the hero learns about this only seven years later, and even then by chance, from a woman who asked for help in finding her loved one. Why she doesn’t go to the police, and also why the head of the Russian mafia, having risen to his feet, decides to kill the one who attempted on his life, and did not try to identify and destroy the enemy, remains unclear to me.
Perhaps he made such attempts, but Kolya is not a fool - after committing an act of retaliation, he leaves his homeland, moves permanently to the USA, illegally (how he did this, history is silent) and works as the same auto mechanic. But the past always comes back. Now it has appeared in the guise of a Russian aunt, from whom our car mechanic learns that he screwed up. Well, apparently Kolya was brought up in such a way that it is important for him to complete the work he starts. And if we are so principled, but have never heard of forgiveness, then here is your motive.
Glavgad meets in the northern capital of Russia - that’s where the mechanic rushed. And wow, this is really Peter! Here you have the Savior on Spilled Blood and the Kazan Cathedral and the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Arrow... But it’s true, there’s no rain. So that I could come like this, guessing good weather! There Kolyan meets a like-minded person (Ben Cross), which has additional information. Then for some reason they go to a nightclub, where the person they are looking for and the main villain should be (bingo!). But why? What did Dolphych’s hero learn that was useful? I just hit a couple of guards at the entrance. Moreover, after the brawl, his newly minted assistant said that today the person they came for is not there. Stupid plot? Maybe. What about the mafia? Sitting in his abode, watching the tenth episode "Wait for it!", yes he laughs. Apparently, the rooster that must peck in order for this bumpkin to start moving has not yet hatched.
His carelessness and unpreparedness served him badly: Nick and his assistant quite easily find and take the missing girl with them during the next raid. By that time, more people had been added to the pair of saviors, and with them the chances of success were added. Then the dashing bunch takes the rescued woman, and at the same time themselves, to a house in the village. Such a thing cannot be ignored, so the table is set, vodka is poured, songs are sung (Russian, of course). Our valiant Nick sits with the others, is silent, and does not drink. This whole feast already looked funny, and the story told about Kolya and the tank completely made people laugh. Can you imagine such a two-meter-tall fellow like Lundgren being a tank driver? I find it difficult. When I served, there was a guy in my company who was less than 160 cm tall. So he climbed into the tank, as if he was born for this purpose and felt comfortable. Well, can’t you come up with a more believable story, writers? Well, it's funny.
For some reason, the girl became dear to Glavgad’s heart, so he came to that village for her, with all his sixes. This is where the final battle will take place. Speaking of batches. There are several action scenes, which are very intelligently distributed in terms of timing. They are represented mainly by post-shootings. There is almost no hand-to-hand combat, which, of course, can’t help but upset. Did Dolph get lazy back in 2005? There is not even a single kick performed by him. At least a seedy low kick, right? Well as you know. What exists in terms of fighting does not look spectacular, inventive or interesting. And in general, it’s rather sparse and without tension. Sometimes the editing in the action scenes is simply overwhelming with its hackwork. For example, moments in a fight inside a club. But they shoot a lot here. The shootouts were done at the "bashki" level. You can even say that one shootout (for example, in the St. Petersburg well courtyard) was done better than all the elements of the fighting game combined. There, the editing is better and the staging and gore are not shy to show if necessary. In general, if you think about it, there is fierce chaos going on in the city, and the police are never seen during the entire film. It’s as if she simply doesn’t exist in this universe.
The final battle is the most difficult. Yes, according to the classics, the longest, bloodiest, although the degree of tension does not increase. In any case, I didn’t feel it, and this is very important. It is only as important as a well-done technical part. But no matter how good the latter is, the film risks receiving the status of “one-off” if the viewer does not have an emotional response. And this is a question for the director.
What I definitely didn’t like was the way they showed Russia, or rather St. Petersburg. No vodka and drinking songs, it was far from the city. There were general plans in which many attractions were highlighted, but all the usual places, entrances, landings, apartments, courtyards - all this was shown dirty, unkempt, shabby, dull, neglected, so that you didn’t want to live. And the final location in the form of a village is the same. Most of it was filmed in Bulgaria, passing it off as Russia. Confusion with languages. Russian characters speak English among themselves, they speak Russian with an accent, but normally, and they are still dubbed off-screen. Dolph himself also speaks several phrases in Russian, but he is no stranger to it, he has experience. At the end, Kolya is shown in a very noble light: he punished the scoundrels, did not take the money, and almost walked off into the sunset.
The film is not bad, average dullness, with very faded characters, including the main villain, but Lundgren drags on and doesn’t let this patient die. You can watch it only because of the presence of a two-meter Swede in the frame. While it is difficult to judge his directorial qualities, we need to familiarize ourselves with his other works. If you're a Dolph fan and don't mind cranberries, this is worth watching. Moreover, some of his further works are already an order of magnitude worse.
Sergey Volkolak
Especially for fight-films.info
I am waiting. I hope there will be something exciting.
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Added a video from the filming of "Twilight of the Warriors".