A Working Man

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.

Normally I'm all in for a Statham movie, willing to suspend disbelief for 100 minutes... but this is just too much. Not the plot. That's fine, genereic, done better in Taken... but the direction! The characters are dumb, annoying beyond belief, and just say and do really stupid things all the time... the female villain only yells and screams at people, at random. If this was real, her partner would have shot her years ago. Towards the end, Jenny, the kidnapped girl, shows a bravado that is completely unearned. And don't get me started in the pure cliché of every russian character in the movie. Wow. It's like the 80's called, and they want their Chuck Norris movies back!

I have a particular set of skills and sitting through this movie is not one of them. This movie tried so hard to emulate others of a genre, the classic revenge flick.... but fails miserabl. I didn't find myself attached to any character or empathetic, sympathetic, or even just rooting for anyone at any given moment including the star of the movie. The pacing is too slow. The action is almost comical. I'm guessing it was meant to be that way, but unlike DC movies that pull it off this was just laughable... I was so disinterested that even by the climactic end it was just going through the paces to see who lives and who dies. Hollywood forgets that great writing makes great movies.... and the writing for this was juvenile, not creative and simply not entertaining... I had higher hopes for something written by and produced by Sylvester Stallone, who knows action movies.

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.

In the same vein as Beekeeper although that's better but this is darker and great entertainment! Not that bad but nothing special, the action is genuinely the best aspect. Jason Statham still shines as an ultimate action baddy and story felt mediocre. Regardless of anything I liked the villains fair amount, the music was great and entertainment value was pretty good; I previously saw Death of a unicorn that was better even though that was cheesy too I recommend it.

It helped seeing this in RPX the sounds were incredible, I don't understand why that showing is only available at the end of the day makes no sense. I loved the last half the most awesome action.