'A Working Man' Review: Jason Statham teams with Ayer and Stallone for an action banger

Modernly made with a flair for the old school 80s action nostalgia, this one delivers the prescribed goods.

If you mess with someone, make sure they’re not related to or friends with Jason Statham. The laundry list of bad guys who have taken a misstep in his territory grows by the year, and movie fans are the beneficiaries of those righteous beatdowns. Last January, David Ayer and Statham defied the odds of a year-beginning movie dump and created a hit with The Beekeeper. A movie about a guy who tended to bees… but wasn’t exactly a regular fella. Someone crossed his friend, and the confrontation escalated into a physical altercation.

This spring, Sylvester Stallone joined the party. He penned a script called Levon’s Trade, which has a Reacher-type novel series waiting to be adapted into future action blockbusters, for his bullet-headed friend and Ayer to bring to audiences, allowing them to savor the pure flavors of a straight-up, one-shot delight. Don’t confuse expectations with demands that don’t belong in this arena. Watch the trailer, and that’s what you’re getting, so stick to your arthouse cinema wardrobe if bone-crunching, concussion-inducing poetic justice isn’t your thing.

One of the best aspects of A Working Man (MGM changed the title for the theatrical release) is that it knows precisely what it is and why it needs to exist. There’ll be no overly long Adrien Brody Oscar speech for this one; perhaps, Statham could stand by on stage to karate-chop his ass (and the gum) back into the seat. But for those needing a real-world element to attach their emotions to, Statham’s Levon is hunting sex traffickers this time. If only every world problem could be solved by sending in the British man of action.

Statham is one of a kind, though. There’s a reason Ayer quickly returned to working with him, and Stallone continues to write scripts for his talents. He’s a silent man of action who achieves more with a kick and a stare than with a mouthy speech. Cut from the cloth of Arnold and Sly from their heyday, he doesn’t create off-screen drama and doesn’t hinder a production with his ego or price tag. He’s one of the few (possibly the only) bankable action stars left in the game.

Upon leaving the screening, my film critic colleague, Kent, told the Allied Marketing Agency representative that this was a typical Statham adventure, and he’s not wrong. Levon is cut from a similar cloth as his past army of one heroes: Special Forces history, quiet yet caring, keeps to himself, and a genuine subscriber to the “fuck around and find out” school of avenging. Levon is a construction worker in A Working Man, the kind of guy who treats the company owners, Michael Pena and Noemi Gonzalez, like a surrogate family. When their daughter goes missing, Levon goes off on a hunt—shout-out to Arianna Rivas, who gives the daughter's role an extra ounce of kickass, fight-back nature.

From there, there’s nothing else that needs to be spelled out. The tracking, beating, killing, and more beating commences, and it’s exactly what the trailer promised. Don’t go in expecting a Mission: Impossible film or some heady thriller. This is a Statham showcase, and one that delivers on the hype of an early spring season delight. Ayer and Stallone (they wrote the script together) didn’t create this for Statham to become a weepy mess; he turns the bad guys into weepy messes, and that’s the point. In this genre, expectations are everything.

Will critics remember this one at the end of the year for Best Editing and Best Director? Nope. They will watch it more often than the movie that wins Best Picture. That’s for sure. Come for the Statham mayhem, stay for the nice supporting turn from David Harbour. The Thunderbolts and Stranger Things actor knows how to make use of a few scenes. I wanted to spend some time out in the woods with his blind, former Special Forces killer after seeing him become Levon’s weapons sommelier for this adventure.

Since there are more books in the Levon catalog yet to be adapted, I hope there are more adaptations on the way. We need this guilty pleasure, smashed burger delights, as much as we need the Anoras and Brutalist arthouse pictures. Sometimes, you want to walk into a theater and watch one man kick the shit out of everybody.

Once again, please don’t mess with Jason Statham — or anyone he cares about. He’ll enjoy a toasted bagel while you drown, tied to a chair.