‘A Working Man’ review: Jason Statham trades blows for producer Sylvester Stallone

Dir: David Ayer. US. 2025. 116mins 

When former Royal Marine Levon Cade (Jason Statham) is recruited to seek out his boss’s kidnapped daughter, our resistant hero mournfully declares: “It’s not who I’m anymore.” However anybody who has been a fan of the motion star during the last 25 years can predict that he’ll quickly change his thoughts. A Working Man gives acquainted, comforting pleasures as Statham churns out gruff line deliveries when he’s not killing, punching or stabbing anybody who will get in his method. Reteaming with director David Ayer (The Beekeeper), Statham barely breaks a sweat as he goes by the motions of this over-long, under-nourished action-thriller.

Over-the-top violence

The Beekeeper collected $163 million worldwide towards a modest funds, and A Working Man, which opens within the US and UK on March 28, incorporates a related dedication to down-and-dirty combat scenes and graphic violence. Statham is a draw, in fact, however so is Sylvester Stallone, who doesn’t seem on digicam however produced A Working Man in addition to co-wrote the screenplay with Ayer. It’s based mostly on the Chuck Dixon ‘Levon Cade’ collection, with the central character now a Brit-in-exile (Stallone labored carefully with Statham on The Expendables collection). 

After many years within the British army, Levon is now working in building in Chicago. Nonetheless affected by PTSD, Levon has put apart his violent previous and is grateful to Joe (Michael Pena), the kindly head of this family-run firm for giving him an opportunity at a brand new life. However Levon should reconnect together with his previous after Joe’s 19-year-old daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped by human traffickers — and he’ll cease at nothing to deliver her residence safely.

Initially, Ayer tries to humanise this pummelling movie by introducing the demons that also go to Levon. (Sadly, these demons are pretty minor, and principally expressed by occasional uncontrollable shaking in Levon’s hand.) Then when Russian gangsters kidnap Jenny, A Working Man makes an attempt to supply ethical indignation on the very actual world scourge of human intercourse trafficking. However these stabs at emotional undercurrents hardly resonate — and the truth that Levon is partly disgusted at these criminals as a result of he himself has a daughter solely highlights the hamfisted dramatics.

Even in his late 50s, Statham casts a putting determine, together with his shaved head and trademark scowl as imposing as ever. A Working Man lacks the outrageous stunts of his early star autos, however he’s nonetheless a commanding presence – few motion stars are as efficient at hinting at their bodily prowess, making a rigidity that’s then launched every time he leaps right into a combat scene. The stoic Levon opens as much as only some individuals — together with his younger daughter Merry (Isla Gie) and his fellow former soldier Gunny (David Harbour) — and Statham has a knack for revealing the softer facet of his tough-guy characters. However when Levon begins his dogged pursuit of Jenny, he exhibits no mercy — particularly throughout a prolonged finale that flaunts its over-the-top violence.

A Working Man’s villains, a group of the blandest Russian-mob stereotypes possible, are fare much less memorable. Levon’s investigation will see him sink deeper into the Chicago underworld, first encountering Kolisnyk (Jason Flemyng) after which searching for out the mobster’s screw-up son Dimi (Maximilian Osinski) and his sordid associates. Not one among these strolling cliches is remotely memorable, nonetheless. Whereas Ayer’s finest movies, like 2012’s Finish Of Watch, crackle with a grubby authenticity, A Working Man’s lurid phoneyness undercuts the sense of shock the disturbing subject material is supposed to evoke.

The movie’s title refers to Levon’s working-class humility, his laudable want to be nothing greater than a very good father to his little one. (One other cliched narrative component is that Levon’s spouse died and his disapproving father-in-law subsequently took custody of Merry, which creates a handy cause to really feel sympathy for our goodhearted hero.) In its extra diverting moments, A Working Man echoes its no-fuss protagonist, executing compact motion set items that eschew flashy CGI in favour of good-old-fashioned shootouts and hand-to-hand combating. However that spareness too typically belies the dearth of ingenuity elsewhere.