Mechanic Resurrection (4K UHD Blu-ray Review) at Why So Blu?

Mechanic Resurrection (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

November 17th, 2016 by Brian White

Mechanic: Resurrection was a film I never made it to theatrically this year. In fact I never even saw the first film in the series. After reading Aaron Neuwirth’s review of the second one here I took away the fact that I don’t even need to visit the first film for continuity sake at all. Bonus for me! Truth be told though I always felt like you’ve seen one Jason Statham action movie you’ve seen them all. Now I know that is being ignorant and completely not true. I also adore Jason Statham in a lot of his features too. It’s just that some of his outings are so damn generic they’re not memorable one bit to say the very least. However, how often does Jason get paired with Jessica Alba? To top it off this one’s being released in glorious 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. How on Earth can I say no to that combo? It’s a rhetorical question. I cannot!

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Film

Jason Statham “wastes no time delivering the bullet-spraying, jaw-smashing goods” (Variety) as Arthur Bishop, an assassin who makes each of his targets’ deaths look like accidents. In this second outing, Mechanic: Resurrection, he’s forced out of retirement when a former employer requires his services. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have some 411 ground to cover first. Mechanic: Resurrection is a film by Dennis Gansel (The Wave). It features the likes of Jessica Alba (Sin City), Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones (Best Supporting Actor, The Fugitive, 1993), and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

So here’s the deal. Arthur Bishop (Statham) returns as the “Mechanic” in the sequel to the 2011 action-thriller (our Blu-ray review of that one is here). The deceitful actions of a beautiful woman (Alba) force him to return to the life he left behind (meaning he was retired from the assignation game). Go figure too! It’s Alba’s damn beauty that puts him in this predicament. What a beeotch! Bishop’s life is once again in danger now as he has to complete an impossible list of 3 assassinations of what he believes are the most dangerous men in the world to save Alba’s beautiful hide. That makes me so mad! Ha ha.

Mechanic: Resurrection is more or less what I thought it was going to be, a grittier version of Statham’s Transporter series. Here you have over-the-top outrageous, but very cool fight and stunt scenes coupled with some of the most gorgeous, tropical 4K footage I have seen thus far on the new format. This movie takes Bishop all over the world from Rio de Janeiro to Varna and more. However, what’s most memorable and even remarkable for me is the “gun fu” fighting techniques (yes think John Wick) and one of the most unique kill scenes I have seen in a long time some 57 floors up. I won’t spoil it, but take my word for it that it has to be seen. In other words just think Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible on steroids and you have Mechanic: Resurrection.

The stunt work while ridiculous is quite crowd pleasing. You might not like this one, but you definitely can’t call it boring. You’re pretty much guaranteed to have fun with it. The filmmakers have taken great care to ensure that the action sequences are as wild and inventive as possible. That much is perfectly clear from my first viewing of Mechanic: Resurrection. However, if you hate that really close filming technique of fight sequences, you might be a bit turned off. But hey, no matter what you’re take on the film is you definitely can’t dismiss Statham’s charisma he brings to the screen. That alone manages to shine through everything no matter how troubled or convoluted matters are.

I think the silliness of it all is what makes Mechanic: Resurrection work so well for me. It’s not going to win any originality awards, gain any respect for its emotionality and its pretty standard and “safe” in its overall execution. There’s a surplus of needless action throughout, but its very much appreciated and the kills are very gratuitous. I like this Mechanic guy. He has a heart when necessary, but he takes no prisoners. Shoot first and ask questions later should be his motto. However, besides the likable Statham and the bikini clad body of Alba’s the main star of this film in my opinion are its exotic locales. I find it very hard to argue with logic when the beautiful scenery on display throughout here looks so enticing calling my name. I can hear it clearly saying Brian forget about scoring this film, but just rejoice in all the 4K splendor and beauty I’m giving you from tropical beaches to rich green vegetation on the islands. You see, not once did I even pull the Jessica Alba in a bikini card. Ha!

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Video

The below video score and related critique of things here are based solely upon my viewing of Lionsgate’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Mechanic: Resurrection with comparisons here or there to its 1080p Blu-ray counterpart, which I also watched for this.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Layers: BD-66
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Clarity/Detail: I took in both the 1080p and 4K presentations of Mechanic: Resurrection and make no mistake about it everything is just sharper and more detailed on the Ultra HD disc. There are moments of halos in the solid colors on the Blu-ray presentation while on the 4K one they are perfect. However, I did experience some judder a few times, but I’m not sure if it’s that known issue between the Samsung player and my Sony TV. With that being said things are drop dead gorgeous in this 4K presentation. I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful picture thanks to the exotic locales, beaches, bodies of water, palm trees and island vegetation on display for all to see here. I feel like I partly went on a tropical dream vacation watching this one. The textures are equally amazing from the wood grains and stone work to the individual beads of sand that litter our main characters’ bodies when laying upon. Of course it wouldn’t be a Jason Statham action movie either without his 4K rendered bearded stubble either. Ha! The only sucky part, but I can’t ding the presentation for this is the fact that some of the explosions look really bad and fake. Like usual though I digress.
Depth: The depth of field goes on forever here from the endless beaches and piers to Bangkok skyline. It’s immaculate and best of all when our characters are on screen they pop with heavenly three dimensional qualities against their rich, deep backdrops.
Black Levels: The HDR is the real star of this presentation when talking about the black levels of Mechanic: Resurrection. That’s not say things don’t look deep and inky throughout here on the Blu-ray, but it’s the details and colors in the shadows of all the darker moments in the 4K Ultra HD presentation that make this one look like a million bucks. I kid you not. The 1080p presentation versus the 4K is night and day. The extra colors in the HDR grading make a huge difference in what you see compared to the two versions.
Color Reproduction: Here’s where Mechanic: Resurrection steals the show…the rich, vibrant and lifelike colors thanks to the HDR and WCG employed in this 4K Ultra HD presentation. The colors themselves are very earthy and natural looking, but step outside in the sunlight and you’re in store for some vibrant goodies to behold from the rich, green vegetation on the islands to amazing Thailand beaches on display. I’m in love with the way this one looks.
Flesh Tones: The temperatures of the skin tone look natural and authentic throughout. They may get a tad hot in some of the sequences, but for the most part I have no major qualms.
Noise/Artifacts: With the exception of the judder I mentioned up above there’s absolutely nothing negative to note about the 4K presentation of Mechanic: Resurrection. I saw some minor source noise in the blue skies at the beginning, but it’s nothing to piss in your Cheerios about.

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Audio

Like I mentioned up above in the video section, the below audio score and critical comments of such are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Mechanic: Resurrection. Lionsgate did not skimp in the audio department here. Both the 4K UHD disc and the regular 1080p Blu-ray come armed with a Dolby Atmos surround track remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead. Interestingly enough the Blu-ray not the 4K Ultra HD has a really cool, gimmicky Dolby Atmos lead in when you press play from the main menu. It sounds like a million bucks too!

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio Optimized for Late-Night Listening
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Dynamics: Mechanic: Resurrection plays wide open in the audio spectrum to accommodate for all the many explosions, action sequences and heroics, score and dialogue. I’m pleased to say that nothing gets lost in the shuffle here. The volume may fluctuate, but every onscreen event is rendered faithfully and prioritized throughout. However, for some strange reason I was experiencing audio dropouts with the Blu-ray’s Dolby Atmos track (playing it on my second 4K setup in the house), but the 4K Ultra HD presentation played back flawlessly.
Height: There are many ways in which Mechanic:Resurrection takes advantage of the Dolby Atmos height track here by way of explosions (blowing a boat sky high always works too), bullets spraying from overhead, many gratuitous helicopters and more.
Low Frequency Extension: The LFE channel erupts from the picture’s many explosions that rock your viewing arrangements, thuds and punches landed in all the action sequences and even manages to complement and accent the heavy hitting soundtrack at times and heroic score.
Surround Sound Presentation: The surround track for Mechanic: Resurrection comes to life throughout the film’s runtime, but mainly only during the action sequences. Thank goodness there are loads of those to go around. Ha ha. Some great examples of way the filmmakers utilized the rear channels include the many fight scenes, water and waves, boats blasting by, helicopters swirling past, bullets zinging, a flare being shot, random voices (and narration sequences) and even in the score itself.
Dialogue Reproduction: The dialog is mostly loud, clear and prioritized throughout, even audible above all the zany actions sequences, but some does get lost due to heavy accents and whatnot.

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Extras

Lionsgate’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray home entertainment release of Mechanic: Resurrection includes five behind-the-scenes featurettes looking at the development of the sequel, scoring the film, a breakdown of the Malaysian prison break sequence and in-depth interviews with Michelle Yeoh and Jason Statham. In addition to all of this there’s also a redeemable code for the film in Digital HD so you can enjoy it anywhere you want. Enough talk! Let’s dissect the extra supplements here all found on the included regular 1080p Blu-ray disc, which also features the movie in HD too.

Engineering the Sequel: Inside Mechanic: Resurrection (HD, 9:55) – Here the cast and crew talk about the film, the locales and more importantly the character of the Mechanic and what makes him tick. Of course they also discuss the charisma of Jason Statham and what he brings to the big screen and how he represents the every man. Jessica Alba and others talk also about her physicality, stunt work and aggressive fighting style she brings to the picture, not to mention her chemistry with Statham (they do look like they had a blast filming their scenes together in the final footage). We finish this one discussing the action sequences and how they’re made and what the inspiration/development for them were.
Scoring the Action Film with Mark Isham (HD, 9:00) – This one is a lot longer than the usual EPK on scoring the films that accompany most modern Blu-rays, but since it’s once of my favorite subjects I definitely appreciate the extra length on this one. Mark Isham, the film’s composer, chats about his childhood, his inspiration for wanting to score films, how he became involved in the business and the emotional impact he brings to this movie. Mark is also the composer of the 2011 Mechanic movie and how he was told he had to create a Bond-like hook/theme song for Statham’s larger-than-life character here. He also discusses the acoustic guitar theme that flirts with the emotions of Jessica’s character as well as all the different sounds for all the exotic locales we go to here. He goes into detail how much thought and effort went into scoring all the non-stop action in this flick. This was a very educational extra for me.
The Malaysian Prison (HD, 1:22) – This one basically sets up the prison scene in the film that’s pretty much modeled off Alcatraz. This real prison was shut down for the past six years because of a flood that killed a lot of people. Interestingly enough the crew believed the prison to be haunted.
Michelle Yeoh, Secret Ally (HD, 1:14) – This one quickly finds us discovering the character of May portrayed by Michelle Yeoh. The cast and crew chime in about her character and who she is to Bishop.
Statham on Stunts (HD, 1:23) – Last but not least, Jason, Jessica and crew talk about all his action sequences. Jason has a huge input into all the stunts and of course is 100% committed to them all whenever possible.
Trailers (HD) – Here we have the following Lionsgate trailers: Criminal, Hell or High Water, Our Kind of Traitor, Wild Card and Expendables 3.

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Summary

The action-packed, thrill ride Mechanic: Resurrection will be available on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack and Blu-ray Combo Pack November 22nd from Lionsgate. With a wild romping good ole time to be had with Statham and Alba not to mention an exceptional audio and video presentation on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray what’s not to recommend about this safe, F-U-N home media release? Yes it’s missing an audio commentary, but most releases nowadays are. So hell yeah, I cast my vote to recommend a viewing of Mechanic: Resurrection. For a good time who you gonna call? Jason Statham of course! Fans of the first film or Statham in general shouldn’t even be contemplating about this one. Here’s the pre-order link. Click it now! Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: This 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified A/V gear found here. Make sure to check out all out 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.

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