A Working Man ★★★

Released: 28 March 2025

Director: David Ayer

Starring: Jason Statham

When David Ayer’s The Beekeeper made headlines last year for featuring one of the most gloriously absurd premises for a Jason Statham actioner, few expected the film to roll out with positive fanfare from the action cinema community. It was a rollicking throwback to 80s commando-style movies, the time when machismo and gratuitous gun violence were en vogue with a new Arnie/Sly/Seagal release practically every week. The response makes perfect sense, though — these days, the action scene lives in the shadow of its glory days. Relegated to direct-to-video/streaming duties, forced to accommodate the PG-13 crowd, and mercilessly ridiculed when seen through the lens of contemporary post-Deadpool cynicism. Which is why it’s such a major deal when films like A Working Man casually come around, reminding the audience why theatrical action cinema still matters — and it looks like the team-up of Ayer and Statham got a winning combination on their hands.

It may come as a surprise, but Jason Statham is, indeed, a working man in this movie: a Royal Marines vet Levon Cade (the ever-so-reliable-and-cool Statham), a kind gentleman with an especially violent skillset, has found his new home in Chicago leading a team of construction workers. Somewhat reminiscent of Reacher, he doesn’t really have a home, with only a car and a toothbrush to his name — all done in hopes of saving up enough money to gain custody of his daughter. But when Russian bratva steps in and kidnaps his boss’s daughter, Levon is forced to wield a trusty M14 and revisit the life he once left behind.

Look, if you’re expecting Crank-levels of kinetic action from this movie, you might have to wait for either Neveldine or Taylor to call up Statham for another collab. However, those craving that signature David Ayer-style action film full of expletives, shootouts, and a handful of crunchy hand-to-hand combat sequences will find themselves right at home. Mind you, this is no Sabotage in its brutish nihilism, but here Ayer is working around an established source material: adapted from Chuck Dixon’s novel Levon’s Trade by Ayer alongside none other than Sylvester Stallone, the film very much feels like a mix of dialled-up Ayer sensibilities and Stallone’s recent tendencies. In fact, the third act here echoes Stallone’s very own Rambo: Last Blood in both representation of the human trafficking boogeyman (hello, Sound of Freedom and Life after Fighting) and the balls-to-the-wall explosivity that accompanies Statham’s righteous anger. The film’s reality is decidedly heightened, with a massive full moon overseeing the action like some kind of higher entity designed to light the path for our gruff hero. It’s all utterly delightful.

The world-building is where the film truly excels, even surpassing the goofy heights reached by The Beekeeper. Frankly, Ayer’s latest has more in common with Reacher or John Wick than anything else on the market: the widest array of goons grace the screen with their remarkably memorable looks, making the most abhorrent villains seem more like Saturday Morning Cartoon variations of their real-life counterparts (if those could even exist, that is). This is the kind of film where a Russian mobster is called “Dimi” (who Statham sharply points out is “probably Dimitri”), flamboyantly dressed as a Seth Rollins-lookalike. All of these goons are shockingly easy to root against, thanks to Ayer’s dedication to replicating the appeal of 80s/90s action cinema caricatures.

Naturally, Ayer’s love for vintage action extends to the central hero. There’s something about Jason Statham’s charm that makes him such a classic action persona, almost as if he’s the contemporary torchbearer from the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Like a wrestling character come to life, it’s all about that combination of macho stoicism and a hidden softer side — a no-nonsense killer with a heart of gold, easy to cheer for even during his more gruesome outbursts. That’s where A Working Man finds the ace up its sleeve, celebrating Statham’s finest dramatic qualities in a film that manages to showcase his bruised knuckles and moon-lit hazel eyes in equal measure. It absolutely rocks.