A Working Man

If it says Statham on the outside, it's Statham inside. Minor inconsistencies are acceptable. It's always a joy to see him fire about 200 bullets from a 20-round magazine. And of course, he's invulnerable. I almost forgot. 😉. Very much in vogue: a young, smart and powerful woman who was placed at his side so that the male audience wouldn't fall asleep.

The only thing missing was for him to catch the flying bullets with his teeth. So, for a possible second part, one could add more. For the faint-hearted, the film exudes a fair amount of cultural pessimism. The theme of "I scare you, and then I'm the hero who saves you" is inherent in American films. As such, the plot is rather one-dimensional and not for people who prefer a more complex way of thinking. Nevertheless, we felt thoroughly entertained at the end of the film and deeply impressed by the many close-ups of Statham's heroic face.

For full disclosure, this was the third film I watched at the cinema and having already sat through "A Minecraft Movie" I was flagging. A film this perfunctory and pedestrian was not what I was hoping for.

Levon Cade (Jason Statham) is an ex-Royal Marines commando, now working construction for the Garcia family. When their daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped from a bar, Cade decides to rescue her. His quest takes him from low level drug dealers, all the way up to Russian mafia bosses, as he kills his way closer to his goal.

The problem is, whilst there's nothing particularly wrong with "A Working Man" there's also nothing particularly good, or perhaps better said, nothing particularly interesting about the film either. It feels like it's made on autopilot with a staid 'kill your way to the top' storyline and mostly rote characters. I say mostly because, as you might imagine, David Harbour is capable of making something relatively interesting out of a supporting role as a blind solder, who served with Cade, and helps him on his mission.

I wasn't surprised to see that the film was made in the UK. Jason Flemyng is particularly unconvincing and massively underused as a Russian mobster, you have Emmett Scanlan is a fairly major role and there is a key turn for British TV stalwart Kenneth Collard. Perhaps the most depressing aspect of the film is that David Ayer now seems to have settled into a rut of mid-price, mid-ambition, mid-quality action films.

Again, doesn't do anything notably bad - but less than 24 hours later and I can already barely remember it.

A Working Man is let down by its overly long run time exacerbated because of how needlessly convoluted its plotting is but it can still deliver the goods frequently enough to be a solid action flick that actually manages to avoid most of the icky issues with these types of stories. From the moment the flashy opening title sequence starts, it's clear this is going to be almost hilariously straight faced and better for it.

Surprisingly, there's a pretty eccentric cast of villains here however, it always remains Jason Statham's movie and him doing his usual extremely serious shtick carries this one as usual. Once again, he's playing squarely to his strengths and it's seriously impressive how him playing this type of character for the umpteenth time doesn't feel anywhere near as stale as when his fellow contemporaries stay in their respective lanes.

David Ayer's direction isn't as strong as his efforts in last year's The Beekeeper whilst keeping the film consistently visually slick despite a couple of weird creative flourishes. The action is unexpectedly choppy when also compared to Ayer and Statham's last collaboration, saved by the stuff that's still easy to see and a wild action packed finale. The overdone score by Jared Michael Fry really helps to nail the throwback feel this is going for.

Jason Statham plays the same character that he does in every other one of his movies, of course, but A Working Man is more of a Steven Seagal-like straight-to-video effort, i.e. An extra dumb plot, big plot holes, cartoonish characters, over-the-top acting, and of course Statham has to say things like "I don't want any trouble" before beating the crap out of everyone. I could probably write a book about all the dumb things that are said in this movie, but I'll just give one: When a mother's daughter is kidnapped by a Russian crime mob, the police tell her "they don't pursue these cases." Ok well, I guess vigilante justice is our only option then.

As the title says, this movie is another Jason Statham movie where one would expect some Jason Statham action. And once again as expected, he delivers perfectly.

Sure the plot is basic: Levon must rescue his employer's daughter from a gang of russian traffickers, the universe of which is deeper than expected. But the action is good, the filming is well executed, the music is nice and complements the story well, and Jason Statham is, well Jason Statham.

I definitely recommend the watch for his fans or for people that just want to enjoy a simple action movie, perfect for a sunday evening. Enjoy!