When I was invited to see a preview of A Working Man back in March of this year, I was excited to see Jason Statham's latest action romp on the big screen ahead of its streaming debut.
After all, it's led by the director of The Beekeeper, David Ayer, a movie which I really enjoyed last year. Alas, A Working Man is no 'The Beekeeper 2', much as I wish it were.
However, from today, you can make that judgement for yourself, because A Working Man is now on Amazon Prime Video for all to stream. Well, all those aged 18+ anyway.
A Working Man trailer
Is A Working Man a good movie?
That's the question many people type into Google. Personally, I found A Working Man to be among Statham's weakest movies. And I say that as a fan. The consensus is largely with me, with the Rotten Tomatoes critics' score sat at 49%.
It's totally subjective, though, as the same site's audience score is way higher, at 87%. Which, if you're looking for amped-up bone-crunching sound effects, silly one-liners, and nonsense gun fights, you might agree with.
I wanted all those things – and certainly got them – but there's just something I felt was two-bit about A Working Man's characters, choreographed scenes, and throwaway shootouts. It's not even funny – well, not intentionally, although many did laugh out loud during my screening.
What's A Working Man's about?
A Working Man isn't the late sequel to American Gigolo. Instead, it's about Levon Cade, played by Statham, a former military but now a 'working man' in construction, whose site boss' daughter is kidnapped. "She's a good kid," so Cade goes all-out to find her.
The plot sounds a little like 'Jason Statham does Taken', no holds barred, but goes down very different roads to that classic Liam Neeson flick. For starters, it involves a Russian Mafia, with Jason Flemyng playing capo Wolo Kolisnyk – and, I must add, quite terribly – further detaching the belief factor.
Sure, A Working Man has all the necessary parts in place to be a fun Statham movie. Unlike with The Beekeeper, however, Ayer somehow misses the mark with it all – tone, pacing, casting and characters. But plenty seemed to love it, so go turn on your favourite streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, and decide for yourself.
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