‘A Working Man’ Review — Statham Earns His Keep Again
Jason Statham is back as a blue-collar asskicker in A Working Man, which could be misconstrued as a sequel to The Beekeeper. It is from the same director, after all, David Ayer, but it’s not fair to compare the two when the former recruits two more action heavyweights.
One of them (co-screenwriter Sylvester Stallone) is a film legend. The other is a comic book veteran who created the character Statham plays, and who knows a thing or two about the poster child for crusaders on a mission of vengeance – Batman.
The film is in theaters, and has been for several weeks, so this is a late review. However, as Bat fans and Chuck Dixon adorers who are curious about any film that’s topping Snow White when Hollywood logic dictates that shouldn’t happen, we couldn’t let A Working Man escape our notice. Did it live up to our expectations, and is it worthy of all the names attached, and the standard they set?
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Statham plays Levon Cade, the retired Royal Marine who is the star of Dixon’s book series, who does his best to leave his old life behind for his young daughter (Isla Gie). He’s the only parent she has left after the death of her mom, but Cade is forced to juggle custody with the girl’s main caretaker, her clownish doctor of a maternal grandpa (Richard Heap).
Levon’s personal family drama is only a subplot. The real conflict in the plot comes from the kidnapping of the college-age daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas), of his boss and best friend, Joe Garcia (Michael Peña). Cade is a loyal and effective foreman for Joe’s construction business, and kind of doubles as a bouncer and insurance policy when unsavory people, like Latin gang members, show up on a site.
If you have a score to settle, don’t look for trouble during Cade’s shift. You will regret it, especially if he has a bucket.
When Jenny, who’s sort of an adopted niece to Levon, is taken by Russian mobsters after a night of clubbing in Chicago, he has to dig deep into his set of skills to become the nightmare he is for people like them. There you have what’s the crux of the movie – a Liam Neeson level of impetus with bits of Rambo, rarefied Ayer, and Statham’s other action roles thrown in for good measure.
That does include The Beekeeper, which has many similar plot points plus an equally dazzling pace and visual style, but A Working Man stands on its own, whether you want to call it unique or not. There is nothing new under the sun, but you can always add to or improve on what came before.
I was sometimes reminded of latter-day Rambo, and if anything, Working Man is like Last Blood done right – a movie that needs redemption. They follow similar story paths but are executed quite differently. Last Blood did a disservice to the Rambo legacy, which was in a good place, arguably after part four. Unfortunately, Sly Stallone had to go to that well again and turn one of his star-making characters into a dufus who gets his butt kicked a lot and can’t save his loved ones in time.
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But at least, he got to ride off into the sunset and cut a guy’s heart out despite bleeding heavily and destroying his homestead with Home Alone traps on steroids. Stallone and David Ayer’s Levon Cade script avoids a lot of those mistakes, even though they go too far in the other direction, occasionally, by turning Statham into an invincible comic character. No matter if he’s surrounded or not, no one is a match for him and his determination.
He works his way up the food chain, shooting, waterboarding, and drowning whomever he has to along the way, but rarely did I get the feeling he was in any serious danger. The same can be said for Jenny, who shows no fear after a while and fights back despite being trafficked. For example, when she is sold to a Russian oligarch who somewhat resembles The Penguin, she evades assault for the moment by biting his cheek off.
Overall, while it doesn’t go as desirably deep into the weeds for character development as it could, A Working Man is everything I might have wanted from a movie like this. It moves along at the right speed and is gripping. I didn’t want to get up and leave for snacks or miss anything, and the final act is a decent payoff that sows seeds for a sequel. It’s still playing in theaters and definitely a better choice than Snow White or Minecraft.
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A Working Man
PROS
- Statham delivers again
- Chuck Dixon may have birthed the next great action franchise
- David Ayer creates his most comic book-looking film since Suicide Squad
- Stallone makes up for 'Rambo: Last Blood' via surrogate
CONS
- Action trumps character, if that's a concern you have
- There's a wannabe Harley Quinn character who is more annoying than anything
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