A Working Man (2025)
Human traffickers beware.
In typical me fashion, I found a collection of movies that struck my fancy and then offloaded the actual choosing in a vague manner to someone else. The result is no matter what I should win, although some would lead to various levels of review difficulty. Science fiction, for example, usually gives me a ton to talk about when it comes to costumes and sets, A monster movie gives me an easy in for talking about special effects - and sometimes depending on the flick there’s always commentary that monster is actually standing in for. A period piece gives me opportunities to show how I live under a rock and should really do some guided tours in different countries if I ever win the lottery that I don’t play. For tonight though, the winner is a tried and true staple of action cinema in the modern time - a Jason Statham movie! There’s work to be done, and he’s A Working Man.
Kind of lame title aside, I feel like we know the general formula for a Statham movie at this point - not that it’s a bad thing. An ex soldier, working to make a living and being a pretty decent guy to pretty decent people, when suddenly bad times happen. In this particular case, his employer’s daughter gets kidnapped, and he ends up having to carve a path of bodies to find her - only complicated really by not knowing who did it, and the fact that his daughter’s grandfather is trying everything he can to pretty much cut old pops out of his daughter’s life. Why does he hate him so much? Something about blaming the wife’s death on him. Either way, things escalate quickly when it turns out the Russian mafia is involved, but we aren’t worried about our main man, we are just worried if our lead lady is going to end up being “fridged” before the movie is over.
For those not familiar with the term, it’s a trope where someone (most usually a woman) ends up having her sole purpose to die to spur on the hero to do what needs to be done. Thankfully, the “I can’t do this” changes to “I’ll go save her” long before she gets stuffed in any coolers and murdered - but there is the constant thriller vibe of danger over the course of the movie for her character. She doesn’t take it sitting down, and does get to do some things - but if people were to pick something apart, I’m sure it’d that character’s role in the movie. Still, as far as characters go she gets to do some stuff, including some impressive bits, even if in smaller quantities then the action-man main character. He’s given a bit of depth through having his daughter and how his background effects him - but it’s never really overbearing. The baddies get to have visual presence of character, but to be honest they could all be role swapped at any time with how much any of them particularly matter to the movie as far as character depth goes. They are bad, because they are bad. It’s fine, and sometimes you don’t want the “morally grey” villains who try and fight for understanding, so it doesn’t bother me - but at the same time I could see where maybe some folks might not get as much mileage from the characters in the movie.
Actors thankfully do good. There might be a bit of a campy line or action popping up throughout the movie, and I wouldn’t say everything is exceptional - but it’s more than kosher. Faults largely would end up falling on the writing and the direction I would assume, but quite frankly I enjoy some cheese in my action movies so when some twig-thing matrix-looking Russian dude pulls out a squad automatic weapon and pumps the air with a few rounds to get attention, or some biker guy shows up wearing a little samurai helmet on his bike I just laugh and get the entertainment out of it. Snooty gross villain guy? Yeah, comes off as snooty and gross, and perhaps somewhat dumb - but I’d far from call it something unintentional like a phoned in acting job. Some of the actors you’ll recognize, and you might feel like you’ve seen them do better in other movies - so that’d be fair to say it doesn’t feel like they are doing their best job, but it also doesn’t feel like the kind of job that needs it.
Man at work
Costumes are common affair for the most part. Modern attire for modern times - suits and commoner clothing in bounds - doing it’s job not standing out. Then you get to some of the bad guys with a bit more eccentric or stand out outfits - like the doof duo looking like a couple of silk-clad street punks, the enforcer that looks like a German dance club Matrix fan, or the more dance outfits of some of the various club goers. Settings are equally modern - clubs, worksites, forest cabins, hideaway casino-clubs. There’s a variety there to help set things apart from each other, without being overly different and feeling out of place because of it. It does fit in a few travel shots here and there, whisking creepily through the city skyline or peacefully through a wooded road, but it doesn’t overuse it really.
Action scenes are fun. It’s not one big nonstop train ride, giving plenty of moments to build up character drama and the like, even occasionally filling the watcher in on details that, if I were to be honest, are kind of unnecessary. Yes, fleshing out whose related to who and how amongst the mafia is handy for motivations on their end - but considering the ones getting in trouble by kidnapping the girl are largely removed from said group really means that it’s just a little extra more than it is a requirement to make things deeper. Fights are the classic fist and guns variety, and they do get a few gadgets here and there but it’s largely all what you’d expect from the modern setting. Cuts do happen, but it isn’t horrifically paced to make it hard to follow, so you won’t find yourself getting sea sick or confused while they play out.
Audio is balanced well, and you can hear the lines as you would expect, even with gunfights playing out. People layer on some accents, and it all sounds fine to me but if I were to be honest, as I usually am, I don’t speak Russian so I’m not exactly an authority here on line deliveries when the subtitles tell me that’s what they are speaking, or if accents feel too forced or inaccurate. Music is there, largely doing it’s background thing leaving my mind before credits roles. The only exception is Moonlight Sonata, in part because it’s classical that I recognize well and also because it’s name dropped like twice. As for thinking stuff, the movie isn’t really the strongest. You do have stuff here, and I guess you could use it as a jumping off point to research and think more into topics, but the custody battling, importance or perceived importance of money, and the differing values in human life when it comes to things like money are all stuff that flips around over the course of the movie. You could also probably find some stuff about trauma, family, or being good folk in there too if you wanted too. In all fairness - I didn’t do much thinking here, I just came for the classic action movie adventure.
Making an entrance at the club.
It’s a decent little flick. Although I - ironically enough - wouldn’t really find it anything to write home about, it does what it sets out to do as far as entertainment and that Statham breed of action. I would say it isn’t quite as fun as Beekeeper, but it is in that same kind of vein. It’s got some morals and stuff in there, but for the most part it’s a search and rescue modern movie with some mafia baddies and one soldier guy who doesn’t know how to quit or loose. If that sounds like a good time, then you’ll also most likely enjoy it. If you are more the person who needs super deep reasoning for your action, then you probably won’t enjoy it as much, and if you hate violence, villains who are bad because they are, and heroes who are unkillable then you probably won’t really like it at all. For me though? Good time, enjoyable ride, regret it less then having to do actual construction. That stuff is tiring.