“A Working Man” features Statham as Levon Cade (where the hell do they get these names?), a former special forces operative attempting to reverse a bit of bad luck at a family owned construction company. When the family’s teenage daughter is kidnapped by traffckers, Cade gets his special-ops groove back on to bring her back alive and punish the bad guys, Statham-Style.
There’s something refreshing about Statham movies in that they know exactly what they are and aren’t concerned so much with the destination as they are with the journey. Come on, you already know how “A Working Man” is going to end. The fun is seeing how many douche-canoes Cade can dispatch in bouts of creative violence. With Ayer, a talented director who specializes in gritty, R-rated violence, Statham has found a brother from another mother. Unrestricted by ratings, the two choreograph their mayhem with blood innovation. And there’s something satisfying in this day and age about a character who who does what he says he’s going to do and does it while looking effortlessly cool. Statham knows what his audiences want and delivers the action and violence in spades. “A Working Man” is a little more self-serioius than “The Beekeeper” but the subject matter (human trafficking) doesn’t really lend itself to humorous asides.
The problem with a movie like “A Working Man” is that it doesn’t offer much in the way of character development or narrative creativity. There is literally no suspense because at no time to you believe the uber-dangerous Cade is in any danger at anytime. It’s like watching an entertaining sizzle reel of really good fights without worrying about the plot. That’s not always a bad thing, but it keeps “A Working Man” from being more than it could have been. Thankfully, Levon Cade is the star of a series of books by Chuck Dixon, so there is more time to potentially explore the character in subsequent entries should this become a franchise. As it stands, “A Working Man” serves as an agreeable, action packed, time waster. Nothing more and nothing less! 3 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!
