Mechanic: Resurrection

Jason Statham goes one up on Charles Bronson by playing for a second time the craftsman-like hired killer Bronson first played in 1972's The Mechanic. As the title suggests, rumours of Statham's demise in that film's 2011 remake were indeed exaggerated, so here he's back again, looking leaner and meaner than ever, but, not for the first time in his career, stuck in a movie that's just not as sharp as he is. For one thing, it makes little sense for this paranoid, meticulous character to make himself vulnerable by falling for kick-ass charity worker Jessica Alba, thus landing himself in the grip of scheming Sam Hazeldine. As "the Stath" is forced into a series of near-impossible kills to keep her alive, the movie's soon stretching credibility in the name of spectacle. There's a fun cameo from Tommy Lee Jones as a hipster arms dealer, but for the most part this plodding, far-fetched bubblegum fare loses sight of what the ever-impeccable Statham does best: that is, playing a recognisably human individual with super-refined close-combat skills.