The reliable bruiser re-teams with director David Ayer for a bland Sylvester Stallone-scripted thriller of fisticuffs and familiarity
The new Jason Statham movie is based on a novel called Levon’s Trade, which is a pretty good title. But A Working Man is a better Jason Statham title, because who’s better, or at least more reliable, at punching in for duty at the genre factory than Stath? Pushing 60, he’s still throwing those punches, sometimes aided by Jackie Chan-like props, and increasingly aided by those old-guy action-movie crutches of firearms and grenades.
A Working Man is Statham’s insta-follow-up to his biggest hit in years, 2024’s January-movie ideal The Beekeeper; it’s not a sequel, but it’s also directed by David Ayer, extending his break from cops and gangs to send Statham off to combat some more broadly agreed-upon social ills with vaguely QAnon undertones. Last time, Statham fought back against phone scammers and a conspiracy that led all the way to, well, you know; this time, he’s taking on sex trafficking. He’s narrowed his focus, though: There’s one particular act of sex trafficking that really gets his goat. The bad guys have the ill fortune to target Jenny Garcia (Arianna Rivas), the college-aged daughter of Joe (Michael Peña), owner of the construction outfit where Levon Cade (Statham) makes his no-fuss living. Levon is saving up for a lawyer to fight for better custody of his own young daughter, so when Jenny is kidnapped from a bar outing, he reluctantly agrees to dust off the Royal Marine skills that never really went anywhere and track her down. (Joe also offers him a huge sum of cash, a potential boon for his custody battle with his dead wife’s supercilious father.)
