In a way, Netflix actually is the brand new Blockbuster Video (or Hollywood Video or no matter rental chain my fellow previous folks most popular to frequent). When you marched previous the rows stacked with limitless copies of the newest launch at your native Blockbuster, you could possibly uncover movies and TV reveals that both flew below the radar or had been deemed too scandalous for mainstream tastes. (Stumbling upon and being mildly traumatized by the grotesque cowl paintings for horror B-movies was virtually a ceremony of passage for people of a sure age.) You do not get anyplace close to the identical vary of selections on Netflix — particularly now that its library is more and more composed of the service’s originals — nevertheless it does equally permit sure older, considerably forgotten titles to achieve a brand new lease on life, nevertheless fleeting it could be.
Admittedly, it is simpler to grasp why sure films or collection abruptly crack Netflix’s day by day prime 10 after they do than it’s with others. With Denzel Washington about to make a visit to the sector for subsequent month’s “Gladiator II,” is it any surprise the streamer’s subscribers are all of the sudden within the temper to revisit the Hollywood icon’s earlier choices (even a movie as middle-of-the-road as his crew up with Mark Wahlberg on “2 Weapons”)? Alternatively, it is troublesome to suss out precisely why the distinctly ’00s crime thriller collection “Jail Break” has popped on Netflix’s prime charts the best way it has this yr, aside from its inherent bingeableness. (Name it the “Fits” impact.)
As for why the Jason Statham-led 2011 action-thriller “The Mechanic” has turned one of many most-watched titles on Netflix for almost every week straight now? Based mostly on my extraordinarily unscientific earlier research on the topic, my speculation is that it is merely the kind of film that tends to play nicely to the streaming lots.
Statham’s Mechanic is getting the job carried out on Netflix
Look, I get it: On the finish of an extended day, the very last thing folks need to do (and pretty so) is comb by way of limitless rows of Netflix titles within the fleeting hopes of discovering a movie or present that really appears worthwhile. It is not, per se, about selecting one thing that is undemanding both; they only desire a protected guess. Enter Jason Statham, one of many most secure bets round. Are all his films equally good? Completely not, however the man is aware of what the lots anticipate from him (growling one-liners and many butt-kicking) and he is more than pleased to oblige them.
It is no surprise, then, that “The Mechanic” has managed to hold round in Netflix’s day by day prime 10 within the U.S. because it jumped as much as the quantity 5 spot on October 4, 2024 (by way of FlixPatrol). Admittedly, it fell to ninth place by October 9 and should have already dropped to the quantity 10 spot by the point you learn this, however a week-long run atop Netflix out of the blue is nothing to shrug off — not least of all for a style movie that got here and went with out making a lot of a ruckus when CBS Movies shipped it off to theaters within the dumping grounds of January 2011. CBS Movies itself quietly went defunct 5 years in the past nevertheless it had an honest run, distributing the likes of “The Lady in Black,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “Hell or Excessive Water,” and “Scary Tales to Inform within the Darkish” alongside the best way.
“The Mechanic,” in the meantime, is pretty inventory materials for its main man. The Stath performs the titular character right here, a protagonist who’s about as quintessential Jason Statham materials as they arrive — as in, he is a principled murderer who units out on a private mission of revenge after his mentor is killed. The movie itself is a remake of the 1972 film of the identical identify starring Charles Bronson (the Statham of his time, maybe) and hales from “Con Air” and “The Expendables 2” director Simon West, so its 53 % ranking on Rotten Tomatoes should not come as an enormous shock. Nonetheless, the presence of the late, nice Donald Sutherland and the sadly-under-appreciated Ben Foster as Statham’s mentor and the son of his mentor, respectively, does its half to raise the proceedings.