A Working Man: Film Review
What I love about Jason Statham movies is that you know exactly what you’re going to get, for better or worse.
In A Working Man, directed by David Ayer, he plays Levon Cade, an ex-Royal Marines commando who is now trying to live a peaceful life as a construction worker in Chicago. However, he has to bring out his particular set of skills when his boss’s teenage daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas), is kidnapped. His rescue mission takes him to the underground world of drugs and human trafficking.
You might be thinking that this plot sounds a little familiar. That’s because A Working Man is essentially a knock-off of 2008’s Taken. The circumstances might be slightly different and it’s the boss’s daughter rather than his own, but it’s still a man with a special set of skills saving a girl from human traffickers.
You could forgive that similarity if A Working Man was great, but Taken was superior in every way. Statham is a reliable action man and seeing him kick ass once again carries a lot of goodwill. But the action here oddly feels quite dull. There are a few cool moments and some gruesome bodily injuries, but it is shot and edited in a way that robs it of any effective impact. Ayer doesn’t make the most of each punch, kick and death and you don’t really care about anybody besides Levon and Jenny.
I found myself laughing a lot at this, and I’m not sure if this was the intention. There was a lot of laughter in my screening but I feel like I chuckled more than the average person. I just couldn’t take it seriously. But maybe you’re not supposed to? After all, how am I meant to keep a straight face at two goons in ridiculous matching tracksuits and Jason Flemying as a Russian gangster?! They were hilarious!
A Working Man, written by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone, has some cool moments, and I like watching Statham do his thing, but the action scenes aren’t exciting enough, there are too many bad guys, and it outstays its welcome.
In cinemas from Friday 28th March
Rating: 3 out of 5.
