Any discussion about whether "The Mechanic" is worth watching has to start off with the fact that the movie is absolutely terrible. The film kicks off with a laughable continuity error in which Jason Statham jumps out of a pool and is then bone dry, and it's all downhill from there. In fact, they actually repeat the same continuity mistake later in the film but take it a step further with Jason Statham actually being IN the water but his head is still not wet at all. It should be a character piece but there's really nothing there. Ben Foster does a solid job but his character is one dimensional. As for Statham, after an absolutely gratuitous sex scene with a hooker, we are given a glimpse into the hero's humanity - he tells the ho his real name! Obviously, this is a man we should all be rooting for.
Simon West appears at times to be trying to ape Tony Scott and European or indie directors at the same time. He adds scenes that don't seem to have any real point to them and shoots/edits them as if he's a crackhead with ADD. Near the start of the third act, I started to feel bad about the terrible reviews that I gave "Salt"; at least that movie was, for all of its absurd plotholes, actually put together competently. "The Mechanic" seems like a rough cut.

However, "The Mechanic" is more enjoyable than "Salt" and it's because, whereas Angelia Jolie's film started off great and then disappointingly went off the rails completely, this film starts off as a trainwreck and then just manages to become a bigger and bigger disaster. It reminded me a bit of So Bad It's Kinda Good "Law Abiding Citizen" although that film has one plotline and has some creative moments. "The Mechanic" is unfocused and the violence leans more on coincidence than creativity. But I think fans of gratuitous violence who liked "Law Abiding Citizen" won't be too let down by "The Mechanic". If you can't turn off your brain or have any expectations when you go to see an action film, you'll probably want to walk out. Again, it's not a good movie. It has some good moments, two funny jokes, and a good performance by Ben Foster but the film is ridiculous and takes itself seriously.

I actually think "The Mechanic" is a decent drink-and-shoot-the-shit-with-your-friends-while-you-laugh-at how-bad-the-movie-is rental but you have to go in knowing that it is a terribly stupid movie. I'd actually recommend "Law Abiding Citizen" over this though since that is more laughably insane whereas the attempt "The Mechanic" tries to be a legit film and just fails miserably at doing so.

On a related note, I just watched the Ebert Presents At The Movies review of this film and I can now officially write those two critics off. It's one thing to say that this movie is dumb fun but the praise that they heap on it makes it seem like they are paid to promote it. To say that this is a solid action movie basically means you have zero expectations for the genre. What's even more astonishing is that the kid Ignatiy Vishnevetsky claimed, "CBS Films is on the right track." Mind you, the four films CBS Films has made are: The Mechanic. Faster, The Back-Up Plan, and Extraordinary Measure. All four were panned and tanked and when Faster flopped, CBS Films dumped their COO. There's having a weird taste in movies and then there's just being completely tone deaf. Young Ignatiy is quite obviously the latter.