rutledgech

This is an overblown action film now. Gabled script, totally implausible plot development. (OK - exactly like the final Mission Impossible film, so obviously people like this stuff.) But all the building, sinister twists of the original are gone. This is evil military/tech marriage builds super android, goes out of control, has to be stopped before it finds the "motherboard". [Yes, they actually call it that, and is laughably cheesy in construction. Looks like something from Temu.] Along the way, there is some neural brain hack thingy that a comic tech billionaire has developed, and this gets used somehow, or is for some reason important, but the details on this are fuzzy. Goodness prevails in the end, everyone is lectured that uncontrolled AI is bad, and all the shallow, but now moralizing characters come out OK. This noisy frenetic mess is impossible to ruin with any "spoiler alert". God save us from any Megan 3.0.

So refreshing to see a classic formula movie done to perfection. Ex elite soldier, working at humdrum job, called by an event to save the day and destroy the villains. Crummy versions of this proliferate on the streaming services like weeds - second rate actors, second rate scripting, second rate dialogue, second rate filming, editing and sound. Usually in some obscure rural location to keep the production costs cheap.

Not so with A Working Man. The pieces fit together like an NFL touchdown play. Stratham delivers the role perfectly, with a believable and ironic sense of reluctance at being called to save the situation. The Baddies are superb Baddies. Nothing has been spared on production values. The plot snaps along with no maudlin spots. Everyone who deserves having their heart shot out their back gets their just deserts.

Great visuals - really ornate visuals - and great stunts. Look, this is a satisfying formula movie in the way that a perfectly done sirloin is a satisfying steak dinner. You want something else - try the Brutalist.

This film is a must see - for the technical mastery of pacing. For the use of nuanced hints at a gathering horror. For superb acting by all the main characters. For crafted unfolding of character.

After the umpteenth horror movie of dumb teenagers/dumb family renting the cabin in the woods/old mansion to be greeted by the inevitable axe though the front door scene, this gem comes along. Starting in a sun-bleached Italian vacation town, two families get enmeshed in an social involvement that takes a menacing turn later on in a week's visit to a farm in the English countryside. Where the unspoken horrors begin to subtly reveal themselves by visual and dialogue hints.

James McAvoy is rightly praised for his incredible performance, but Scott McNairy and Mackenzie Travis are also awesome as the Daltons, an oh so modern and believable misfunctioning couple, held hostage to their over- protected daughter. Their attempts to rationalize and smooth over the increasingly disturbing dynamics of the four adults are brilliantly acted.

Don't miss this one. Restores you faith in what is possible in a "horror" genre. And in movie craftsmanship in general.