Last year, one of my favorite movies was The Beekeeper by David Ayer, starring Jason Statham. Statham spent almost two hours getting violent vengeance on terrible rich people who stole money from Phylicia Rashad. The Transporter has to kill for Clair Huxtable, and I was with it. Now this year, these two are back with a new movie titled A Working Man, and this time they brought Sylvester Stallone along with them as co-writer. Based on venerable Batman writer Chuck Dixon‘s novel Levon’s Trade, this is an ’80s retro feature film that’s sincere and not winking at you. This isn’t a movie that’s having people dress like the 80s or having 80s movies’ needle drops. It’s how the hero moves within the world and who he faces, along with the mission he has taken on. The movie takes place in the modern world – our now. Yet here, Stallone and Ayer write our main character, Levon, like his characters from Stallone’s late 80s era movies. Full of familiar tropes, he’s silent, cares about people, yet can’t express it, and is still damaged from a war no one won.
To set the scene, Levon (Jason Statham), a working man, is an ex-Royal Marines special forces soldier now working in construction in Chicago. He’s very close to the Garcia family, who owns the construction company and takes it seriously, leading the whole crew. Also, a widower who’s fighting for custody of his young daughter with his Father-in-Law, our man Levon, has a lot going on but is very focused on the few things he can control. All that is thrown in disarray when Jenny (Arianna Rivas), the daughter of Joe (Michael Peña) and Carla (Noemi Gonzalez), gets kidnapped while on a girls’ night out. The family begs for him to help them, and he goes on a one-man mission through the underworld of Chicago to find and save Jenny. And like what you’d expect from Statham, he begins a path of terror against these criminal forces to get Jenny back. Statham hardly ever takes damage, but not in the terrible Steven Segal movie way, it’s more like watching a video game playthrough where the player knows all the patterns of the enemies, so he takes no damage.
This movie was a very fun time for me, and it really hits that you don’t have to think about the type of movie. It’s enjoyable and something that works in the theater and at home. With not many people making these movies, stars like Statham and Gerard Butler are filling a need with simple action movies without massive stunts and CG, with more down-to-earth stories. A Working Man also has Sylvester Stallone writing the screenplay with Ayer, and he’s able to bring the right tone of the film from his peak action hero era. With Statham and Stallone working together on The Expendables films, they seem to get each other and can play to the story’s strengths. I think David Ayer and Statham have also found a good groove with these movies. The action hits, and the emotion feels sincere enough to entertain you.
I look forward to The Beekeeper 2 after this. A Working Man is worth your time to watch.
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