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.

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.

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.

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.

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!