REVIEW: Jason Statham's 'A Working Man' Delivers On The Ass-Kicking But That's About It

Levon Cade left his profession behind to work construction and be a good dad to his daughter. But when a local girl vanishes, he's asked to return to the skills that made him a mythic figure in the shadowy world of counter-terrorism.

When I first watched the trailer for this movie, I had the same thought that I assume most of you had: Yup, this checks out. Jason Statham playing an ex-soldier dragged out of retirement for one last job/vengeance. If it sounds familiar, it's the plot of basically every one of his movies INCLUDING last year's 'The Beekeper', which had the same director. However, I don't view that as a bad thing. Some actors find their niche and stay comfortable in it. That is where Statham is at and I have no issue with it. 

As always, let me break it down into a pro and con list for you.

PROS:

- The action rips, just like you might expect. Hyper-violent hand to hand combat and cool gunfights. 

- Director David Ayer has, for the most part, always been really good at casting. All the actors in this movie fit the type of character asked of them perfectly.

- It has a simple and easy to hate villain: Russian Sex Traffickers. Only thing more hateable is like, Nazi Pedos. 

CONS:

- It feels like half the actors were tol they were making an over-the-top comedy action movie like 'Smokin Aces' while the other half were told it was something slightly more serious like 'John Wick'. This messes up the vibe a little. 

- Again, you expect a little bit of corn in a movie like this. It gets a little bit overboard in this, however. 

- I think a solid 15 min could have been shaved off this without losing much. It would have helped the pacing a lot. 

To sum it up, the movie meets expectations but that is about it. The best part? That's not a bad thing! Watching Jason Statham beat the shit out of sex traffickers is a solid way to spend 2 hours of your time. I think the most negative thing I can say about this movie is that I wish David Ayer was spending his time making more movies like 'End of Watch' or 'Fury' than stuff like this.