‘A Working Man’ review: Hardly working

Jason Statham rejoins The Beekeeper director David Ayer for a similar premise with half the fun in A Working Man.

After nearly 30 years in show business, Jason Statham is the last of a dying breed. While Hollywood changed numerous times throughout his career, the brooding Brit never strayed from the path of a classic action star: look tough, throw punches, say a quip, repeat. It’s commendable that Statham never donned a superhero outfit and his presence in the ongoing movie franchise war has been either minimal (Fast & Furious) or forgettable (Expendables). No matter what kind of new trend Hollywood wants to throw to the masses, Statham has always been there doing the jobs other actors just can’t handle anymore. Hell, A Working Man might be the most self-aware title in Statham’s filmography. Sadly, the working formula is starting to show signs of slack.

The titular Working Man is Levon (Statham), a Chicago construction worker (still with the British accent, don’t worry) who everyone loves because he’s just a regular guy trying to help when he’s needed. When the daughter of his boss (Michael Peña) goes missing after a night on the town, Levon uses his secret ex-military skills to track her down. Turns out, she’s been kidnapped by human traffickers with connections to drugs and sex work throughout the city. With the help of his blind ex-military buddy (David Harbour), Levon loads up to bring down the bad guys.

Missing the bees.

You may recall Statham and writer/director David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch) had a something of a hit last year with The Beekeeper. Though financially successful, The Beekeeper was something of a letdown due to its routine plot and not embracing the silly possibilities of having an action hero who also managed bees. At least Statham proved he’s still one of the best action stars alive with his stern presence and intense physicality. Plus, it showed that Ayer could competently direct in-your-face action scenes after spending years in CGI dreck like Suicide Squad and Bright. There was a sense that Ayer and Statham understood the bare necessities of an action film.

All that is to say that A Working Man makes The Beekeeper look like a masterpiece by comparison. Any scraps of fun and creativity in the last Statham/Ayer collaboration are entirely absent, making for another needlessly convoluted rehash of Death Wish and The Equalizer. There are more stock plot elements, with Statham’s character having a young daughter to provide for and run-of-the-mill street gangs for him to beat up. A Working Man is actually 11 minutes longer than The Beekeeper because it needed more time to show the boring intricacies of a human trafficking ring. It doesn’t help that A Working Man also looks uglier than The Beekeeper, with first-time cinematographer Shawn White making every scene look like it’s filmed through a layer of asbestos. Worst of all, Ayer and the fight choreographers are not on the same page with Ayer unable to avoid shaky-cam and awkward close-ups for every throw down. It’s all so bland and undercooked that it makes you long for the simple pleasures of Statham turning jars of honey into Molotov cocktails.

Time to retire.

There’s also the pedigree behind A Working Man. Not only does it have a bonafide lead in Statham and established director Ayer behind the camera, but the script is co-written by none other than Sylvester Stallone. Yes, the man who once wrote the inspiring comeback tale of Rocky (which earned Oscar nominations, mind you) helped Ayer adapt Chuck Dixon’s book, Levon’s Trade. But neither Ayer nor Stallone can find anything meaningful to the actors they’ve roped into this. Peña is one of Hollywood’s best character actors, but A Working Man only has three scenes for him to crack wise and be sad. Harbour doesn’t fare much better, not getting to show any blind fury in a fight despite being the movie’s “weapons sommelier.”

As for Statham, he lives up to the title of his movie. He knows this isn’t a dream job or a refreshing change of pace. He’s a working action hero, putting in the hours to keep his top status. No extra effort or deep new dimensions, but never really phoning it in. He’s still gruff, still throws a mean punch, and drops a slick one-liner every now and again. What’s sad is that Statham is running out of time to truly take a risk in his career, and he’s capable of taking that risk. As seen in Paul Feig’s Spy, Statham can have a sense of humor about his tough guy routine and make fun of himself in the process. But that role was 10 years ago and Statham is not getting any younger. He needs to find a new avenue for his career before he ends up in the dreaded direct-to-streaming territory where Bruce Willis and Nicolas Cage spent the worst years of their careers.

The bottom line.

It’s ok to miss the days of simpler action flicks that didn’t have bloated budgets and 14 prior movies of continuity you needed to catch-up on. Sadly, A Working Man can’t skate by on just the nostalgia of old Charles Bronson movies. Newer flicks like Novocaine have a bit more effort put into their plots and set pieces to add spark to the standard action movie format. A Working Man doesn’t have any energy or creativity to it, just blunt force that lands with a thud. Statham still knows how to work, but this type of action movie needs to be laid off.

A Working Man is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Read more articles by Jon Winkler here.

Jon Winkler