A One Mann’s Movies review of “A Working Man” (2025).
There is something soullessly predictable about “A Working Man”. An everyman construction worker with a military background and a “certain set of skills” who is called back into violent action (against his wishes, of course… he’s “left all that behind”) because some baddie has kidnapped a friend’s cute teenage daughter. Sigh. It could be called “The Beekeeper 1.5” (ahead of the expected release of “The Beekeeper 2” in 2026).
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“A Working Man” Plot:
Levon Cade (Jason Statham), a retired black-ops Royal Marine, is happily working as a building site manager, keeping his crew on the job and safe from outside harrassment. But then the daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas), of his boss Joe Garcia (Michael Peña) is kidnapped by a sex-trafficking gang and Joe pleads for Levon to help find and recover her.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong bloody violence, injury detail, language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Merab Ninidze, Maximilian Osinski, Cokey Falkow, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Noemi Gonzalez, Arianna Rivas, Andrej Kaminsky, Greg Kolpakchi, Piotr Witkowski, Andrej Kaminsky.
Directed by: David Ayer.
Written by: Sylvester Stallone & David Ayer. (Based on the book by Chuck Dixon).
Running Time: 1h 56m.
“A Working Man” Summary:
Positives:
- Technically, the film had some impressive visuals.
- If you like violent fight scenes with the Stath kicking ass, then this has lots of them.
Negatives:
- Lots of ridiculous scenarios including a ludicrous ability to dodge bullets.
- Some absurd wardrobe choices.
- Dialogue that makes your teeth ache.
- A lunar catastrophe!
Review of “A Working Man”:
If you like mindless violence, this has a lot of that.
If all you are looking for from a film is a lot of bad guys being beaten up and killed in creative ways, then this is the movie for you! Once we get the opening set-up out of the way, the rest of the film is a non-stop parade of shootings, knifings and multiple bone fractures. As always, Statham does all of this sort of action stuff convincingly and with a bit of a rogueish twinkle. But in this case, the material really doesn’t match up to his skills.
An unconvincing plot.
I’m not sure if the film matches the book on which it’s based. But Levon Cade (yes, every British mother decides to name their child “Levon”) seems to get to the heart of the bad guys through a process of guesswork and osmosis. He assumes a bartender is linked to the gang and then follows some half-arsed subplot to become a drugs-buyer and gain the confidence of a Russian guy who may or may not be involved. In all of this time, Jenny is raped then not raped and murdered then not murdered then raped and not raped again (yada yada yada).
Elsewhere we have a couple of Russian brothers (Greg Kolpakchi and Piotr Witkowski) wearing suits so garish and sparkly that not even Graham Norton would choose to go anywhere near them!
Ridiculous invisible armour.
Here again, we are in the realms of ludicrous invincibility. In one particularly idiotic scene, Levon is racing along a (straight) forest track with machine-gun-toting bad guys firing at him from a moving car. The bad guys were clearly trained at the Stormtroopers Academy. Sparks fly off the bike and off the trees (how exactly does that happen?) but Levon escapes without even a flesh wound.
We then enter a finale set in a country house where the action is divided into timed bouts. (“Shall we all go in and attack this one guy all at the same time?”. “No, why don’t you five go in first. Then we’ll wait a minute for some mental reflection. Then we’ll send another five in. It seems fairer that way, don’t you think?”) Levon piles bodies on top of bodies, again without sustaining any notable injuries.
Lunar apocalypse.
As a strong candidate for the ‘Most Ludicrous Studio Backdrop’ of the year competition (the MLSB’s), one scene outside the baddie’s mansion shows that the moon must have spun off its orbit and halved its distance with the earth. IT IS HUGE. I know the moon always appears bigger nearer the horizon (it really isn’t.. I once had to prove this to the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man!) but this is taking that illusion to ridiculous lengths. Furthermore, the earth seems to have stopped spinning on its axis, since Levon goes into the house, kills about 100 bad guys over the space of about 20 minutes, and the moon is STILL IN THE SAME PLACE: it hasn’t risen or set at all!
Technically it has some talent.
Despite sitting there pretty slack-jawed throughout, I was actually impressed with some of the technical competence employed in the film, particularly in the fields of cinematography (Shawn White) and editing (Fred Raskin).
Summary Thoughts on “A Working Man”
Sly Stallone was one of the co-writers of this as well as being one of the producers. Ironically, the film is a bit Rocky in places, but not in a good way. One to avoid and catch on streaming… it’s bound to be on Prime Video in the blink of an eye.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “A Working Man”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTbgNC42Ops.
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