“A Working Man”—hardly an accurate descriptor for tough-guy Jason Statham’s new character, Levon Cade. As a former black-ops super star, he is more like a robotic savior of the working man and in this case, saving an abducted daughter of his boss Joe (Michael Pena). Nevertheless, he has chosen daily to leave his exalted rank in special forces to be a low-key construction foreman, whose past few know about.
Until the bad-boy Russian mafia enters his scene and he is dramatically called back to his killer way of life. Statham has evolved lethal characters from a simple transporter to a beekeeper, from a mindless operative to a citizen who reluctantly helps the needy, using those deadly skills from long ago.
In this manner, he has some value as a do-gooder, but beyond that he is simply a killing machine and his enemies, unapologetically Eastern-European, now are the once accursed enemy but beginning to look like co-conspirators in the world politic outside the film.
Talk about the world, films are paying attention more than ever to human trafficking from Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington to the holy studio Angel, whose Sound of Freedom sets a standard for smart anti trafficking drama. Because I find Statham a suitable heir to the Bronson, Stallone vigilante tradition (a writer and producer of A Working Man), we’ll continue to review his films even when he has withdrawn on this thriller to dialogue-starved mayhem.
When he is more than a death dispenser, Statham’s films have potential for insightful social commentary outside of the visceral satisfaction of simply shutting down world-wide mafia activity.
A Working Man
Director: David Ayer (Suicide Squad)
Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone (Rocky), et al.
Cast: Jason Statham (The Beekeeper)
Rating: R
Length: 1h 56m
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com