A Working Man Review

I saw the new Jason Statham action movie, A Working Man with my Uncle Donald, and here is my thoughts…

In this movie, Jason Statham has some special skills he got in his military past, and now he’s going to go kick a lot of ass to save somebody.

Jason Statham is a solid, lean man. Do you know how to be intimidating and do action well? There is a reason he’s in so many of these.

David Harbour and Michael Peña both give solid performances in supporting roles, and the actress who plays the person Jason Statham is trying to save had some unintentionally funny moments that I thought were cute. Also, Jason Statham’s character has a daughter, and the actress, for being such a young kid, did a good job, and she and Statham had some nice chemistry together.

So, like, the first half of this movie is like a pretty standard revenge action movie. He’s got beat-up criminals in order to get closer and closer to his target… Then things get odd.

So they’re a bunch of different criminal factions in this (bikers, Russian mob, heavy metal meth heads, two Guy Ritchie knockoff goons), and they’re all kind of bumbling. Like, how they became mafia kingpins, I have no idea. But the first half of the movie tried to be a grounded action, revenge, crime film, but then all the bad guys turned into Batman reject villains because everyone’s wearing these eccentric outfits and acting all crazy and mustache-twirling in these neon-lit rooms all the time, throwing weird parties where everybody’s dressed like they’re in the 1700s if designed by Joel Schumacher, deeds for no reason. No joke, two of these villains are basically the Mad Hatter and The Penguin, down to the hats and everything. It just gives things a weird tone when Jason Statham is playing; it’s so serious, and they’re dealing with something serious like human trafficking, but he’s got to deal with all these cartoonish villains.

The middle half of the movie is also a bit muddled because Jason Statham has some sort of plan in place to get close to these guys and fake buying drugs, and honestly, you don’t know what it’s accomplished, and you’re like wondering why he’s wasting time with these other mobsters when he’s trying to get to this girl?

I will say two of the kidnappers, I think their brother and sister, were kind of unintentionally funny in there, buffoonish over-the-top villains. Theresa, the actress who played the sister, must’ve been having a ball because she was hamming it up like a pig wearing a bacon suit.

I wish there was a little bit more action in the movie. What they had was good, and there were some cool set pieces, but for a nearly 2-hour movie, I wish there had been some more action pieces.

Something weird I noticed was towards the end. They showed a couple of different shots of characters walking in the woods, and the moon was in the background each time, but the moon was literally like the size of the side of a barn. Like you’re looking at this thing, expecting it to crash into earth, which scientifically if the moon was that close we’d be experiencing all kinds of weird natural occurrences and disasters, so I’m just sitting here thinking… why? Like, I’m assuming it was a creative decision, but such an odd one to have the moon take up half the screen.

I did get to see the movie with my uncle Donald, who, he and I went separately, wanted to see a movie, and then just happened to run into each other at the same theater and showtime, so that was a funny coincidence.

I can’t say I didn’t have some fun moments with the film, whether it was some action or some acting or an over-the-top villain… But like a party girl on her 21st birthday, this movie is kind of a mess—entertaining, but a mess… I give this film two stars ⭐️⭐️ but an enthusiastic two stars because if you’re going to be weird, just go for it, and this movie definitely goes for it lol.