A Working Man review: Jason Statham action movie just doesn’t work

A popular saying is work smarter, not harder. I’m not sure A Working Man, Jason Statham’s new action movie, is doing much of either. A straight-forward, not-complicated action movie can often at least be entertaining, which definitely feels like what they were going for here. Some people may find bits of the movie just that, but for others (myself included) it’s hard to look past the lackadaisical vibe A Working Man gives off.

While I had no delusions of A Working Man competing for Oscars, perhaps my expectations were a little too high. I had seen and wasn’t a fan of director David Ayer and Statham’s 2024 movie The Beekeeper, but I thought the two, with the infusion of Sylvester Stallone as a writer and producer, could help elevate things. To my surprise, between A Working Man and The Beekeeper, I prefer The Beekeeper.

Based on the book Levon’s Trade by Chuck Dixon, A Working Man follows ex-Special Forces Levon Cade as he attempts to make a new life for himself working construction. But when his boss’ daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped, he will stop at nothing to rescue her and bring her back to the family that has been so generous to him. Even as that means barrelling through drug deals, human traffickers and the Russian mob.

There’s nothing else you really need to know about the plot, as it is so thin it feels like it could snap from scene to scene. While it technically all makes sense, you can tell that there are storylines that perhaps had larger parts in the book or that they would hope to expand on in future movies but are barely touched on or are referenced and quickly dropped and given no proper backstory or resolution. Even so, the storylines they do focus on feel underdeveloped or defy logic.

A lot of that can be overlooked if the action sequences are entertaining enough. Unfortunately A Working Man comes up short there as well. There are a couple of fights that will get action fans riled up, but most are pretty bland. Then there are long stretches with minimal action, with Statham’s Levon doing some investigative work. But that’s not what people are paying to see and the actual mystery isn’t interesting enough to make up for the lack of action.

Then there is Statham. One of the bigger action stars of the 21st century, A Working Man feels like he is just in cruise control, playing a stoic, blunt force simply meant to dole out punches. Even when they try to give him some deeper personal bonds — like the subplot involving his daughter — it feels like neither the script nor Statham knows how to make it feel natural or convincing.

What makes this really frustrating is that I’ve seen Statham be charming and entertaining numerous times. Go watch him in his early Guy Ritchie movies (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) or movies like The Italian Job, The Bank Job, Spy and the Fast & Furious franchise; he often plays similarly tough men of fewer words, and yet he exudes a charisma that has been missing of late. Statham can be a fun action lead because we’ve seen it before, but these recent collabs with Ayer are not good examples of that.

Unfortunately, the only way I see A Working Man becoming a movie people revisit is if it enters the so-bad-it’s-good category. Others may see that right away, but right now I would classify it as in the bad-because-it’s-bad category.

A Working Man opens exclusively in movie theaters worldwide on March 28. See what else is coming out with our full 2025 new movie release schedule.