My problem with the poison in Naples
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Mechanic
manco82 — 10 years ago(November 26, 2015 03:26 PM)
surely Bishop was already wary that Steve was going to put a hit out on him. The brucine was only coated in one glass, what if Bishop insisted on switching the glasses? That would have exposed Steve right away.
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al666940 — 10 years ago(January 17, 2016 11:06 AM)
Like Steve said, Bishop's sense of loneliness was his weak spot. You can tell right there Bishop is actually enjoying his time with Steve, thus forgetting he's been set up.
Sure he set the stage back home if he didn't come back alive, but in the heat of the moment, he slips and neglects Steve's intentions (thinking Steve was somehow contacted/picked/hired to replace him and thus wouldn't feel the need to go though since they succeeded in killing their would be killers, when in reality Steve planned to kill him on his own free will from the start, making his betrayal even worse, something Bishop should have picked up on from the start but again his weak spot blinded him to Steve's true intentions). -
manco82 — 9 years ago(June 18, 2016 07:36 PM)
Yeah that was just plain stupid. Up to that point Steve is shown as a very sharp guy totally on track to becoming a good hit man. That he would leave the contract in his house like that is just a huge plot hole. I guess this movie is more enjoyable if you don't think about those things too hard.
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spookyrat1 — 9 years ago(October 07, 2016 04:22 PM)
I don't think it's that stupid. Steve is clearly over-confident in his own abilities (bungles the biker's hit through a pure lack of care and awareness). He doesn't have Bishop's professionalism. It's in keeping with this lack of attention to detail that he might leave evidence of his plans secreted in a spare draw of what clearly is a rather big house.
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manco82 — 9 years ago(October 07, 2016 07:33 PM)
Steve clearly was in over his head. Surely he should not have kept any materials regarding his ordered hit on Bishop in his own beep house! At least keep it in a safe deposit box or something. Total lack of judgement right there. Normally Bishop would have eliminated Steve after that, but they had to go to Naples so there was no time for his usual methodical hit. So he arranged a trap. I would hope that as Bishop lay dying in that hotel room that he thought - "I've got you Steve, bang your dead.".
RIP Arthur Bishop. The best hit man ever. -
spookyrat1 — 9 years ago(October 07, 2016 09:12 PM)
Yes, I agree with all that. I like the film but I think it would have been improved with a better actor than Jan Michael Vincent, who IMO was pretty limited in his range and capabilities. Even after repeated viewings, Steve appears as such an unattractive character, guilt notwithstanding, it's just difficult to reconcile why Bishop, an intuitively cautious person, would take him on as a potential partner.
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manco82 — 9 years ago(October 07, 2016 09:48 PM)
Jan Michael-Vincent is supposed to be portraying an unattractive character. His matter of fact statements about hit men struck me were in the vein. I think Bishop saw that Steve had a ruthless edge that would make him a good hitman in the future.
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spookyrat1 — 9 years ago(October 07, 2016 11:05 PM)
Yes, I understand that. But he needed to demonstrate a real connection between he and the Bishop character, which he just wasn't able to achieve IMO. It felt like Bronson was acting with a broom. Ben Foster was much better in the remake.