A Working Man

Levon Cade (Jason Statham) is a working man. He is ex-British military. His wife committed suicide while he was away on duty. He is now struggling to raise their daughter. He works construction for the beloved Garcia family. One night, Jenny Garcia gets kidnapped while out at a bar with her friends. Levon takes on the Russian mob to find her.

Jason Statham is well within his comfort zone in this action B-movie. The action is fun. The production is pretty good and better than the average B-movie. The story is fine. Jenny should probably be Levon's daughter instead. The villains are comic-book adjacent. They should really stop asking, "Why he's doing this for one girl?" It gets annoying and dumb. I thought he should leave those missing person flyers every time he kills a gangster. This is mostly fine for what it is.

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.

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.

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.

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!