Bring back the bees, please.
Director David Ayer and actor Jason Statham team up again for “A Working Man” after partnering for last year’s film “The Beekeeper.” Unlike last time where he was a retired special ops guy-turned beekeeper, Statham now plays a former commando-turned construction worker.
Statham’s character, Levon, works for a kind family and is trying to rebuild his own situation after the death of his wife. However, his everyday life is disrupted when the daughter of his employer is kidnapped by traffickers. With the police doing little, he uses his skills to rescue her from the gangsters responsible.
What really worked about the aforementioned “Beekeeper” was its simplicity. Bad ass guy has to leave his peaceful life on a quest for revenge against scammers with powerful ties. It lets the carnage commence and just go off until the end. A straightforward romp without much baggage other than a mutual connection with another character. It worked.
“A Working Man,” meanwhile, feels unnecessarily convoluted. It should be a simple situation. Girl gets kidnapped by some baddies, hero has to go rescue her and fight some people along the way. That does happen here, but there’s a lot of plot points tacked on.
First, Levon also has a daughter, and he has limited custody after the death of his wife because he has a bad relationship with his father-in-law. Also, the bad guys who kidnapped the young woman work for a biker gang, as well as the son of mafia boss, and that son is a shunned member of the Russian mob.
One can somewhat understand that Ayer and Sylvester Stallone, who co-wrote, wanted to create an emotional core for Levon to be more motivated by having him also be a dad. But he already had a good friendship with his boss’ daughter who was kidnapped so his drive and an emotional connection is covered. Meanwhile the stuff with the biker gang and mob politics is just needless filler
It doesn’t help that a lot of the villains come across as nearly cartoonish here. I mean, a primary antagonist wears a black hat, black trench coat and carries a cane topped by a red-eyed skull.
Even worse are the two main henchmen here who do the kidnapping. They have too many annyoing villainous quirks. It’s fine for them to have some personality, but it’s overly done here, and to add insult to injury, their deaths are unsatisfying. On the other side of the spectrum, Michael Pena is here in a small role as Levon’s boss and mostly phones it in.
David Harbour meanwhile, is a bit better as an old blind war buddy who acts as Levon’s armorer and confidant. Arianna Rivas, who makes her first major feature debut, is alright as Jenny who is fighting to survive as the hostage. Finally, there’s Statham who does his usual thing. The guy knows how to make these characters work and he delivers with some fine action hero moments.
As for the action itself, it’s hit or miss. Obviously one of the positives in these movies is to see the hero be a one-man wrecking crew, but Statham is a bit too overpowered. He’s only really challenged in one fight. Still, there are a couple entertaining moments, though none really stand out and wow a viewer.
“A Working Man” is a below average, mundane Statham action flick. While it features the star’s usual bad ass charms and a few good set pieces, its overstuffed story and weak villain roster drag this down. It’s simply not exciting enough to be worth a watch. 2.35 out of 5.
Matthew Liedke on Film 
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