Why Jason Statham can't break out of the B-movie action genre.

For all intents and purposes, Jason Statham has been an action star since 2002, when Fox released the Luc Besson-produced The Transporter.  Yes, more hardened film fans knew him from his Guy Ritchie work and from his supporting role in The One (a Jet Li vehicle from late 2001, the first of three times he would spar with Jet Li onscreen).  But for general moviegoers and action junkies, Statham was introduced as Frank Martin eleven years ago as of October 11th.  In that time, Statham has arguably become the king of an all-but vanished genre.  He is basically the last action hero, the lone movie star known primarily for kicking ass in a non-fantasy and non-period setting.  But nine years is a long time to toil in the underbelly of grind house B-movie cinema.  He's had the occasional high-end picture (The Bank Job), supporting roles in A-level studio thrillers (The Italian Job) and flirtations with the big time (playing the second lead in The Expendables).  But nine years since he literally kicked down the door to stardom, Jason Statham remains pretty much where he started.

Free tip bad guys: Jason Statham is not the guy you kill, he's the guy you buy.

I saw The Mechanic earlier this week, and as you can surmise from the lack of review, it's not particularly worth commenting on. It's not a bad movie, per-se. It's relatively well-acted and the first two-thirds are more character-driven drama that action thriller. It's always nice to see Donald Sutherland, even if once again, he barely makes it past the first reel. And, in this day and age, it is always nice to see a violent R-rated action picture that isn't afraid to BE R-rated. That's actually one of my only real complaints, regarding the CGI blood. Yes, like a lot of action films of late, the blood is almost entirely CGI. Unlike some, I don't have a problem with that on principle. My theory is that if you know you can digitally remove the blood at a later date should the MPAA cry foul, then you can toss in that much more initially. Centurion uses the convenience of CGI blood to be a genuine gorefest. Alas, The Mechanic does not take advantage of this tool. Point being, it earns its R-rating, but it's not what you'd call blood drenched. A minor quibble, but worth noting none the less. But what we have here is another movie where the bad guys don't know when to walk away.

Weekend Box Office (01/30/11): The Rite tops, The Mechanic opens well, and Oscar nominees continue to soar.

While there were two major openers over the weekend and both of them opened within expectations, the real news was the performance of the various Oscar nominees that were in a position to capitalize on last week's nominations. Generally speaking, the news was good all around. Topping the weekend was The Rite, as the heavily-advertised religious thriller opened with $15 million. As far as religious horror pictures go, it pales to the $30 million scored by The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005, the $19 million earned by The Exorcist: The Beginning in 2004, the $20 million earned in the opening jaunt of The Last Exorcism several months ago (a surprisingly terrific little movie, by the way), and even the $19 million opening weekend of Stigmata from way back in September 1999. Still, The Rite had less overtly horror-ific moments to highlight in the ad campaign, as it mainly had a few fleeting shots of supernatural terror plus Anthony Hopkins to sell. The $35 million Warner Bros/New Line Cinema release will do just fine in the long run, and the film (for what it's worth) is Anthony Hopkins's biggest opening weekend for a top-billed star vehicle where he doesn't play Hannibal Lecter.