This working man needs to change careers.
When I reviewed Jason Statham and director David Ayer’s last collaboration “The Beekeeper,” I got a comment on Facebook saying that Statham has been playing the same character for years. You know the British soldier getting back in a he game to fight bad guys with his fists and tough guy dialogue. And in “A Working Man,” as I see him on a motorcycle being chased by gunmen shooting at him, I wonder if he’s bulletproof or they’re lousy shots. I think the movie wants to be both.
As I’m watching the movie, I’ve been trying to reflect on his previous films that were much better than the ones he’s been indulging action movie fans with lately. I liked him in “Snatch,” “Cellular,” “Furious 7,” “Spy,” “The Italian Job, “The Expendables,” and his voice work in “Gnomeo & Juliet,” among others. Even his cameo in “Collateral” is much more affective than “A Working Man.”
Statham is reincarnated as an ex-Royal Marine, who works as a Chicago construction worker named Levon Cade, and trying to earn custody of his little girl (Isla Gie). His father-in-law (Richard Heap) blames his daughter’s suicidal death on him and threatens to decrease his visitation hours. You bet he does.
He needs to prove he’s a better father to her now, but how can he when his bosses’ (Michael Pena and Noemi Gonzalez) daughter Ashley (Arianna Rivas) gets kidnapped by human traffickers at a night club? They know what he did in his past and enlist his help in tracking her down. And as expected, the Russian mafia is in on this. In fact, a lot of bad people are in on this, even dirty cops.
The villains, who shall remain nameless to me because I don’t care about them, wear costumes like Ayer is hosting a violent costume party. Some of them dress up as MTV party animals, and one of them looks like Dom Delusie doing his Godfather impression before putting on his top hat and cigarette holder like he’s Oswald Cobblepot.
Here I think they missed a good deal. They get David Harbour as Cade’s old, blind soldier buddy, who basically lives like a hermit in the woods. He still has the age and attitude to bring out his style, but he’s only used as a supporting character looking for his break. And I know because I just panned a movie about an actress trying to earn her star billing in “Atropia” (See “CJ’s Virtual Visit to the Sundance Film Festival: 2025” for the review).
Every once in a while, you get some snappy one-liners and young women who can be smarter than what the screenplay provides (and Sylvester Stallone co-wrote and produced this). But most of the time, you get a lot of action, fights, and cliches. And it all runs for less than two hours. I’m looking at this movie like a negative producer at a pitch meeting. In fact, there’s a show on AppleTV+ now about newly appointed studio head called “The Studio.” Now, that has a lot going for it.
I like Statham when he broaden his horizons and even satirizes himself in “Spy,” but he seems to be having more fun making these recent action movies than I have watching them. And about the bad characters wearing different costumes, I think Ayer has gotten spoiled after making the bad box office hit “Suicide Squad.” You have to do better than glamorize the villains; you have to give them substance.
Yes, “A Working Man” will make some money from action movie fans, but I was begging to get out of the theater.