‘A Working Man’: Jason Statham Punches Through David Ayer’s Latest Dose of Absurd Action

Alci Rengifo

A movie like “A Working Man” is pre-designed to function as a crowd experience. You need to see it in a theater, with an audience ready to laugh and holler at the whole thing. At some point director David Ayer decided he was going to channel all his rage into the kind of absurdist action movie that requires Jason Statham to be his muse. You need a Statham to carry a movie like this, which lacks any kind of grounded logic except for the fact that he still looks like a walking, talking action machine. Statham has been in so many of these that by now he doesn’t need to study tough guys, they all take notes from him. He almost makes this one work.

This time Statham is Levon Cade, a widower and construction worker who used to be in British black ops. He lives happily enough working for Joe Garcia (Michael Peña), whose family runs the business. Outside of work, Levon struggles to prove he’s a good father to his young daughter, despite the worries of former father-in-law Dr. Roth (Richard Heap). Meanwhile, Joe’s daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) announces she is going out to party with friends to celebrate graduation. Sounds like a normal enough outing until she gets kidnapped by mysterious goons. The distraught Garcias plead with Levon to help them find Jenny, since he used to be a black ops guy. He must know how to do lots of one-man army moves, right? Indeed, after initially claiming he “isn’t that guy anymore,” Levon flexes his old instincts and goes on the hunt. The first trail of broken bones starts leading Levon to the Russian mob and a ring of underground human traffickers. 

If you are into some classic testosterone mayhem, “A Working Man” nearly hits the spot. It’s a reunion for Statham and Ayer. Together they made last year’s better “The Beekeeper,” where Statham played another variation of the nice neighbor going about his business until a friend is attacked and he transforms into his former one-man army self. This time they’re even working with a screenplay co-written by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone adapted from a Chuck Dixon novel, “Levon’s Trade.” Stallone originally intended the concept to be for television. The dialogue sounds like the two men simply got together over the weekend and knocked out the pages (“snitches get stitches”). You don’t need much introspection or finessed language for this kind of plot (though it can help). David Harbour is the one going for some gravitas as Gunny, Levon’s friend and another former soldier, now blind and dispensing guru advice about the beast within, etc. He conveniently has a whole arsenal in his cabin that will come into good use later.

As a director, Ayer tends to feature edgy, at times very graphic, violence to depict a bleak worldview. The bleaker material tends to be his best work like the effective cop drama “End of Watch” and “Fury,” a gritty tank drama set during World War II that deconstructs romantic war movie archetypes. After his maligned DC outing “Suicide Squad,” Ayer has settled on quick popcorn escapism. The violence is even toned down for most of “A Working Man,” never featuring a stunt like the death by seat belt moment in “The Beekeeper.” More energy emits from the performances, since the cast seems very self-aware and give it their all. Jason Flemyng, who starred next to Statham in their long ago cult hit “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” is snarling fun as Russian mob boss Wolo, left strapped to a chair in the bottom of a pool. Chidi Ajufo as Dutch chews through the scenery while running a biker gang cartel and sitting atop a kind of steel throne that looks stolen from the “Mad Max” set. Emmet J. Scanlan and Eve Mauro as Russian mob underlings Viper and Artemis feel like they must be doing a parody of these kinds of characters. Didi (Maximilian Osinski), Wolo’s son with his long hair, tacky suits and odd dialogue seems brought over from a ‘90s action movie when all Russians looked like this.

Surprisingly, this movie can start to drag around the middle, mostly because there is just not much story to it. Viewers will be expecting to see Statham break bones and mow down bad guys, which he does in a third act where Ayer connects with his old self again and the violence gets ludicrously out of control. The big showdown takes place in a rural estate where creeper rich men gather and an absurdly large moon shines in the sky. Statham doesn’t break a sweat and never has to say much. He is rarely ever in danger, since his contract reportedly states he cannot lose a fight onscreen. You already know that this all ends with the villains getting their just rewards. Jenny even learns how to crush someone’s neck with her legs while being chained to a ceiling. There’s nothing new to see here and for Statham fans, that might just be enough.

“A Working Man” releases March 28 in theaters nationwide.