A Working Man

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On paper, director David Ayer‘s revenge action thriller “A Working Man” should be a slam dunk for Jason Statham. Based on Chuck Dixon’s novel “Levon’s Trade,” it has all the familiar elements that not only cater to the actor’s strengths, but also to the desires of his most die hard fans. Unfortunately, very little about the film works, and it comes across as dull, predictable, and unmemorable. Levon (Statham) is a former black ops solider turned construction worker who is forced to return to his lethal past when his boss’s daughter (Arianna Rivas) is abducted by human traffickers. What starts as a rescue mission soon unravels a deeper web of corruption, pushing Levon to do what he does best: take down bad guys with ruthless efficiency. The premise is well-worn but serviceable, but never quite rises above its own mediocrity. The stunt work is strong and the fights are bloody, but the action sequences mostly lack the punch and creativity needed to garner any feelings of excitement. The action is middling, which makes the uninspired story stand out in the worst way. Even worse, the film lacks personality. It’s competently made but painfully generic, with a by-the-numbers plot that fails to generate any real emotional stakes. The script (co-written by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone) doesn’t do enough to elevate the material beyond standard action fare. Despite being well cast, the film wastes a terrific supporting turn from David Harbour, and it feels like the reliable tough guy Statham is running on autopilot. Nobody enjoys watching a movie where the lead actor is delivering a performance that feels more like a contractual obligation than a passion project. Working in harmony with Ayer’s directorial style, Shawn White’s cinematography proves to be the brightest spot. This is a polished, good looking action thriller, at least visually speaking. If I had to sum up “A Working Man” in one word, it would be “serviceable.” This is a film that will be buried under Statham’s long list of similar (and much better) movies. By: Louisa Moore / SCREEN ZEALOTS

"A working Man" is an accidental satire, of the US action film genre. Working class guy, who served in the military and now works for a migrant families construction company, looks to save their angelic daughter, the vision of perfection, from the evil Russian human traffickers. Everything is an exaggeration. From the notion of the working class guy, a rough diamond, a patriot, with a heart of gold. The migrant family with the dutiful, over achiever on steroids daughter, the true inheritors of the American dream. Even, the minimum wage construction workers, who are told to make sure they "keep their fingers" (you can see occupational health and safety is a big thing) are so happy they look like they belong in the original production of "Snow White" (the real one, not the hideous remake). As for the Russians, well surprise, surprise, they are brutal, cruel and stupid. No one saw that coming, right? I won't mix words, this is cliched, biased, condescending, pro Western military, jingoistic, crap. Interesting too, how venture capitalists "State Street" make a brief appearance, in the opening scenes. If they thought this would lift their profile, well all I can say is it didn't "do it, for me". Sorry guys. Is there an upside? In short no. Even the action has a ham fisted, "seen it all before", air of stale, stagnation, about it. In summary, a horrible facsimile of superior action films, you have probably seen before. Loaded down with trite cliches, stereotypes and jarring biases. One to avoid.

I was fairly sure that I would like this movie. For starters it is a Statham movie and I almost always like Statham but, in addition, the ever so useless “critics” at the rotten site wrote it down (the audience gave it 87% fresh). It is a pretty conventional action movie with elements from a lot of previous action movies. It has the usual bits in it like the lone very kick-ass hero, a kidnapped daughter, some mafia guys and other assorted criminals to beat up in various ways and plenty of guns and things that goes boom. It is never going to win any rewards for its script, acting or realism. That is fine with me. This movie takes all the good elements that an action movie should have and strings them together into a very entertaining action roller coaster. In short, it is a very Statham movie. The action is great and they did not try to do some nonsense like going for a PG rating which is a relief. It is of course not very plausible from time to time but not so ridiculously far out as in the last couple of John Wick movies. The story is decent and works well to serve as a foundation for the action scenes. After all, the main reason to watch a Statham movie is to watch Statham beat up, shot up or blow up the bad guys after all. So overall, for me, this is a solid four star movie. A movie made to entertain without any of the usual Hollywood rubbish in it (which is probably why woke tomatoes wrote it down).

Well if you just thought Jason Statham was going to make a movie about the dangers of the construction industry then the first few scenes will put you straight and give a clue that his past is altogether more violent. That is going to come in handy when the daughter of his boss is kidnapped-to-order by some people traffickers and he is, initially reluctantly, drafted into track her down. With consummate ease, he sets about his task facing down some of the menacing Russian brotherhood who rule the roost supplying girls, drugs and booze to whoever can afford to pay! Can he find the girl? Will the sun come up? There’s not the slightest hint of jeopardy to any of this derivative outing for a star whose usual charisma has been left in his Winnebago. It’s got bits of “Die Hard” (1988) mixed in with, I thought, that Clint Eastwood “Cry Macho” (2021) affair plus the seriously camped up pairing of Jason Flemyng and Maximilian Osinski to make sure that any scintilla of credibility was well and truly throttled after about fifteen minutes of this repetitive and predictable drama. Sylvester Stallone had an hand in the writing - I suppose someone had to put the full stops in the script, and David Ayer shows little, is any, flair as the thing lumbers along for what seems like a lot longer than two hours. Let’s hope Jace isn’t going down the Bruce Willis boulevard of broken dreams here, and doesn’t make any more duds like this.

<em>'A Working Man'</em> is imperfectly very good. I do have a couple of issues with it, but all in all I have to say that I did enjoy this to a fairly strong degree. Jason Statham seldom disappoints in an action thriller, I'm a fan of his so was always likely to get the required fun out of this. Statham is great, naturally without him the movie would be vastly less entertaining. Away from the former British diver (still can't quite believe that's the same guy!), there are too many characters - which is one of the issues I have. There didn't need to be so many peeps in this. Even so, those onscreen are all decent enough and none register as overt negatives in my mind. David Harbour does well in a small role, he usually speaks the same way in roles but this feels minorly different. Michael Peña and Arianna Rivas are solid, as is Jason Flemyng. The latter's character should've be the only bad guy in this, or at least one of a few. He gives enough that we didn't need anyone else in my opinion, especially as 'higher-ups' Andrej Kaminsky and Maximilian Osinski give weaker performances. Chidi Ajufo is the best of the rest. My other issue lies with the run time. I guess with so many characters it did need to be almost two hours in length, however you could've told this story within 90 minutes without a doubt. But again, as noticeable as that and the other issue is, it at least doesn't hinder much for me.