And I was just getting accustomed to the 00s. Nothing reminds me that I’m living in a different century than comparing Charles Bronson to Jason Statham. The good thing about the remake of ‘The Mechanic,’ which opens wide across the Metroplex today, is that Statham and his co-star Ben Foster have what I call “grizzled charm.”

“You might think that remaking a deadpan 70s original with an unabashed comic action sensibility from the 80s would be enough desecration for most people.

“The Mechanic, which opens wide in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. tomorrow, goes a couple of steps further by layering on 90s-style psychological justification for the characters and a nebulous post-9/11 amoral morality. Surprise! It works (kinda, sorta). The end product — and it is just that, after all, product engineered by and for a mass audience — is briskly entertaining, an unapologetic, violent R-rated movie that skates by on the grizzled charm of Jason Statham and Ben Foster.”

You can read my entire review at Twitch.