Bullet Points: Wrath of Man (2021)
Never threaten me with watching a Jason Statham film. I have always respected the man for his willingness to carry on the title of “action star” while others like The Rock and Arnold before him ran off to get paid doing movies for kids. Statham’s films don’t always deliver but you have to admit that he is never the root cause of the failure. Cool as the other side of the pillow but be careful because he may just use that pillow as a makeshift silencer which only works in Hollywood movies.
Synopsis: The plot follows H (Jason Statham), a cold and mysterious character working at a cash truck company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week.
- Get that money: The majority of the film revolves around a series of robberies. Most of them are the armored truck type, which makes for some exciting moments. One of those moments is the opening of the film which sees a group of guys robbing a truck with a crew who pay the ultimate price while doing their job. It’s a short scene that is both chaotic and indicative of the 0-100 type of role they all play. Transporting large sums of cash is probably boring as hell until that one moment it’s not. This particular scene is that moment and something definitely goes wrong.
- Walking Weapon: Jason Statham plays Patrick Hill, or H as he’s called by his new fellow employees. It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t belong in the same group as the men and women tasked with collecting and delivering the money to the depot but he’s there for another reason. Statham is at his best when he doesn’t have to do much talking and he can just stare a hole straight through you. His focused gaze in Wrath of Man could melt steel and when he finally decides to unleash his brand of justice he uses far more than just a look to do it.
- Detective skills: It’s up to H to go full detective mode to find out exactly what happened on the day the truck was hit. One question that needed answered was who exactly is H working for? We’re given enough information from the beginning to know that the fateful attack on the armored truck and the deaths that resulted from it have something to do with why he’s there. The answer to that question goes further than I expected and it makes for some interesting scenes as H dives deeper into who pulled the job and who exactly pulled the trigger.
- A change of perspective: Jason Statham is the no doubt star of the film but Wrath of Man takes the time to develop the characters behind the crew who robbed the truck. By this point we already know who H is and why he’s speeding down this devilish road with no brakes. Are these scenes designed to build our empathy for these guys? I don’t think so. I believe they’re inserted to add some suitable and formidable foes to stand against the unrelenting rage of Statham’s H.
- The cast: You’ll recognize several of the other actors that fill out the cast including Josh Hartnett, Scott Eastwood, Jeffrey Donovan, and Andy Garcia. A few of them were in the recent release Shot Caller (which I absolutely loved) and I was excited to see them back in a gritty film which didn’t pull any punches. Where the hell has Josh Hartnett been? No idea, but he certainly doesn’t play a character that I expected him to play and the man has aged like someone out of an Anne Rice novel.
- An explosive finale: The film builds to a masterful crescendo as the crew of robbers clash head on with H and his weighty baggage full of revenge. The bullets fly and nary a crack in the floor is unfilled with blood as H and the surprised members of his security company attempt to defend what isn’t even theirs. Unlike so many movies before this one there isn’t even a passing mention of “doing the right thing” or obeying laws. These folks do their job or plan and try to execute a “job”. H isn’t a hero in the traditional sense of the word but even a bad man can do something heroic and some of the ones with the most twisted souls die the hardest.
The Verdict: There aren’t a lot of happy-go-lucky scenes in Wrath of Man. Just a bunch of bad guys killing other bad guys. What there are is a whole lot of scenes that will make you pump your fist in the air and whisper “fuck yeah” to yourself. Jason Statham is at his most Statham-y and his intensity is only matched by the body count he’s responsible for. The film tells a very simple story of a man full of rage and vengeance with an unlimited capacity to exact said revenge. Statham’s “H” has spent his career taking from others but once something he loves dearly is taken from him he finally snaps. Statham’s response is brutal, visceral, and just the type of action I love to see! Wrath of Man is the kind of movie I could watch once a week. Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham have a guaranteed hit on their hands and I have a new contender for my favorite Statham vehicle to date.
