But shot in the new millennium. Of course Dolph Lundgren does know, what his fans want (and some did enjoy it very much as can be seen here in the comments section, so if you're a Dolph Lundgren fan, read those other reviews for your enjoyment)! Still that doesn't make a good movie though! A man on a mission one could say (the character in the movie, but maybe that describes Dolph as man too) then. And the action scenes are shot in a really good way (for a B-Action-Movie). But the continuous cliché that pops up, is just too much to bare. Especially if there is no surprise in the story that awaits you. It's very straight forward. And even if Mr. Lundgren has an academic graduation, this doesn't make him a great actor ... not at all! Like 80s action movies and Dolph Lundgren? If so, then watch it, but even if your answer is yes, it might disappoint you!

Dolph has really done it. The Mechanik is an action movie at it best. It has everything an action flick needs. A good guy, a bad guy, shooting, close combat, blood and broken bones and a huge death count at the (happy) end. The story is very simple. Nikolai Cherenko (Lundgren) is a former spetznas (Russian special forces) who, after his family was killed by a mafia boss, went to the US to work as a mechanic. After 7 years a lady comes to him and wants to hire him to save here daughter which was kidnapped by the same gangster. Nick finally takes the job but of course it is not about the money but all about vengeance. He gets a backup team and… from here on the story and the end is quite predictable. But it is not the story that makes this movie a must see. It is the details, and mostly it is what the movie leaves out. You won't find long dialogs about morale and ethics, heroism in terms of "leave me behind I'm just slowing you down!" and then the obligatory "never I'd rather die!". There are also no long man on man fights. What do you do if a black belt attacks you? Well if it would bee any other movie, such a situation would develop into a 1 hour bare hands fight. But not here. Take your gun and shoot him. It is that simple. A very similar situation, the bad guy falls to the ground and loses his gun. Wait till he gets up? Continue the fight without weapons? Bah! You are standing, he is on the ground, you've got a gun, he hasn't. Shoot him! Not very honorable, but very fast and effective. After all he is there to get the girl not to win a karate tournament. At the end, The Mechanik is not your typical action flick. The hero is not as heroic as you would perhaps like to have him. He is not doing all this because it is the right thing, but because he wants to see blood. The Mechanik is a great action movie, just like in the good old times when action didn't try to bee anything else, but simply action. It is simple, violent, direct and pure as the best Russian vodka! A must see!

I saw this on TV the other night, I knew it wasn't going to be an Oscar worthy movie, but I like action movies (especially John Woo) - so I don't' mind a lot of fighting/violence and I don't need it sanitized or stylized and I like seeing things set in Russia.However this was just one dark, brutal unoriginal movie with no redeeming value.I've only seen a few other of Dolph's earlier films and I think he's a solid actor, but he's just barely adequate as a director. The plot was completely unoriginal. The pacing was a little off. Too many long traveling scenes (was that just to enhance the bleakness of life?). The usual bad guys shoot directly at the good guys & can never hit them problem.The final drawback for me was the one-dimensional portrayal of the women. We had the pathetic victim (thank you for at least not having her fall for Dolph & try to do a happy ending!!!). Then we had the moneygrubbing prostitute. And of course the gratuitous whorehouse scenes.That final scene where the Englishman stands over the body of the woman he professed to care about and just pour alcohol (presumably a repentance of his drinking?) on her body and then walk away from her corpse to let it just rot there was disgusting.IMO: While I've seen worse, this was still not worth watching.

I just viewed "The Mechanik/Russian Specialist". It was a better movie than I expected. The basic plot has been done multiple times and I rate it favorably with other comparable movies. The action was good though in some instances a bit over the top. I would have liked to have seen more character development from the character Nick and the young kidnapped lady. Nick's character was too one dimensional. There were missed opportunities to develop these characters, (especially when they stayed overnight with the family in the countryside. (by the way, Bulgaria seems like it is a beautiful country). I think that the actors that portrayed that family did a superb job. The only real problem I had was during the Early scenes in the movie. The lighting was poor. I could barely see the actors. Overall, I was pleased with this movie.