On March 27, the audience will once again see the film with expendable, indestructible and unscathed Jason Statham in the new action thriller «A Working Man». The script of the film, inspired by the novel Levon’s Trade (2014) by American writer and comic book author Chuck Dixon, was written by David Ayer and Sylvester Stallone. «A movie with Jason Statham» — is, in principle, a self-contained, exhaustive characterization that eliminates the expediency of writing any reviews about the vast majority of films starring the muscular Englishman. Nevertheless, we propose to find out whether there is something to catch the eye while watching — in the review below.
Pluses:
For some people, Jason Statham movies are good entertainment, so they have their own undeniable benefits;
Minuses:
This is «the typical Statham», which for many people already sounds telling in a negative sense;
A Working Man
Genre action movie, thriller
Director David Ayer
Starring Jason Statham, David Harbour, Michael Pena, Jason Flemyng, Noemi Gonzalez, Emmett Scanlan, Maximilian Osinski, Max Cruz, Merab Ninidze
Premiere movie theaters
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb, official website
Levon Cade works in construction and tries to maintain a relationship with his schoolgirl daughter, which is stubbornly prevented by his father-in-law. Everything about Cade speaks of a difficult past, and now he is just trying to live a normal life. But these dreams are not destined to come true, because some villains kidnap the 19-year-old daughter of Cade’s boss, Joe Garcia. Since he has developed a strong friendship with Garcia and his family, the hero decides to find and rescue the girl, while punishing all those involved in her abduction.
Let’s be honest — you already have a pretty good idea of what kind of movie you’re going to see without any reviews. Because Jason Statham has long since accustomed us to one distinct role in which he feels like a beekeeper in an apiary. At the same time, it’s not easy to find another actor in the world whose filmography is so powerfully replete with the names of professions or occupations.
In this aspect, only the late Liam Neeson can compete with Jason, who managed to be both a snowplow and an air marshal, not to mention both acting as a defender. But despite all these transporters and mechanics, everyone understands what the next champion of goodness, played by one of Guy Ritchie’s favorites, will actually do.
«A Working Man», which sounds like a generalized characterization of the skills of the hero of our review, is the second consecutive collaboration between director David Ayer and Statham after last year’s «The Beekeeper». Another important actor is — Sylvester Stallone as a co-screenwriter, and his off-screen presence is felt very strongly. Interestingly, both filmmakers are involved with «Suicide Squad» — Ayer directed the first part about a dubious superhero team whose only bright spot was Margot Robbie, and Sly voiced the anthropomorphic shark in King Shark pants in James Gunn’s hooligan sequel.
But let’s get back to the down-to-earth heroes, because at least the Statham characters pretend to be ordinary guys without superpowers, unlike Dominic Toretto. Already at the eighth minute, one of the bad guys’ faces meets Levon Cade’s fist for the first time. At the twentieth minute, he says the obligatory line «I’m not the same, I’m a different person now», and somewhere around the fortyth minute, the mafia threatens him with the standard «you have no idea who you’re messing with.». Of course, he shouldn’t have done that. All these phrases are predictable in advance, all the plot moves are read a kilometer ahead.
However, the action movie as a genre in general, and the Jason Statham action movie in particular, does not a priori imply deeply thoughtful philosophical maxims (unless you count legendary quotes for memes) or unexpected twists. Some people, on the contrary, see the simplicity of the genre as an advantage. But in terms of action, «A Working Man» does not stand out from the pile of other genre one-offs in the Englishman’s filmography. After each of his visits to the bad guys, the situation requires the services of special cleaners with body bags, all enemy bullets pass by, and all of the Statham’s shots hit the target.
The film is completely devoid of the seemingly appropriate (self-)irony that made, for example, the second «The Expendables» a completely sane movie (the appearance of Chuck Norris alone is worth it). Instead, the protagonist conducts his own investigation with a frown on his face, which is hardly exciting.
You can’t even dream of a slightly charismatic villain here. Among the mafia’s henchmen, you can see a very episodic Jason Flemyng, two fools in suits that would make Farrell’s physics teacher from «The Gentlemen» jealous, two tough killers who show off a lot but are quickly put in their place. The cherry on top is a bizarre version of Oleg Vynnyk, literally on hard drugs. There’s also a vainly flickering old man like a venerable mafioso in the frame, apparently inspired by «Tulsa King», and a small-time black drug dealer-biker with whom Statham develops a kind of kink fraternity.
