Jason Statham, you deserve better. After a series of films and franchises which feature cheeky, tough guy fun from the Stath – everything from his breakout in Guy Ritchie’s hard man classic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels through to the enjoyable and baroquely vulgar Crank series – it’s fair to expect that the now-57-year-old action star might be given roles which at least nod to his stature onscreen.
In A Working Man, though, there’s a little bit too much nodding and too little of anything else. Even snappy one-liners. Yes, there are nods to John Wick, to Taken, to ghosts of Stathams past; the story is entirely cobbled together with action flick clichés.
Statham plays Levon Cade, an elite ex-Marine keeping his head down in a construction job, and a single dad fighting his father-in-law for custody of his daughter after the death of his wife. He first displays his ability to kick ass in a minor skirmish with his workers; but when his bosses’ daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas, given predictably little to do) is kidnapped from a bar by what turns out to be Russian sex traffickers, his black-ops military training kicks into gear. Jason Flemyng, Statham’s former Lock, Stock co-star, plays Wolo the Russian crime lord – an unusual choice, to say the least.
Jason Statham, you deserve better
David Ayer, a terse action-oriented filmmaker who last collaborated with Statham on surprise hit The Beekeeper, is capable of making very fine films. (His World War II drama Fury is rollicking and suspenseful, set almost entirely within the confines of a tank.) But he seems to have lost the thread a bit here. The formulaic story might be forgiven for some excitement or competence with the action set-pieces: no such luck. There’s a dull visual shorthand that almost borders on incoherence; the editing is jarring without making much sense – a Michael Bay-style approach to jumping through time and space and often confusing the viewer.
There are occasional flourishes that remind you that watching a silly action movie is supposed to be fun; increasingly absurd villains for Statham to gruffly dispatch, some wearing neon-coloured suits and top hats. And we can all enjoy Statham’s typical bulletproof power as he surges forward against the baddies. But he’s going through the motions here; there’s something rote and forgettable about it all.
A Working Man was co-written by Sylvester Stallone, which makes you think that it feels like it might be an old Stallone flick. Crucially: not one of the better ones.
In cinemas worldwide Fri Mar 28.