Bullet Points: A Working Man (2025)
A new Jason Statham movie on its own is a newsworthy event for action fanatics. But a brand new Jason Statham movie directed by David Ayer (and with a screenplay by David Ayer AND Sylvester Stallone!!) is exactly why this action fanatic got to the earliest screening possible for A Working Man…
- Punching in Early: Jason Statham plays Levon Cade, a former Royal Marine who now finds himself in Chicago working in construction for the Garcia family. Within the first few minutes of the movie, Levon taps into some of his old military training when he handles some gang members who have come onto the job site to harass one of his men. Levon’s actions do not go unnoticed by his employers’ 19 year old daughter, Jenny Garcia (Arianna Rivas) and it becomes a bonding moment for the two. Little does Jenny know that her friendship with Levon is about to come in real handy… later that night, Jenny and some of her friends go out on Rush Street to celebrate surviving their first semester of college… and that’s where Jenny finds herself targeted by human traffickers Viper (Emmett J. Scanlan) and Artemis (Eve Mauro).
- Taking Care of Business: With their daughter now missing, Joe and Carla Garcia turn to Levon for help… they want him to find their daughter and bring her home to them. Levon is reluctant at first, but when he commits, he commits… he starts with some intel gathering and that leads him to the bar where Jenny was last seen, and a less than ethical bartender… and it isn’t long before Levon realizes that the people who have kidnapped Jenny are in business with the Russian mob! That might be enough to get the average person to pump the brakes, but Levon Cade is all gas and no brakes in this one!
- Working Overtime: Bryan Mills would be proud of the way Levon Cade left no stone unturned or no bad guy alive in his quest to rescue the taken Jenny Garcia. And the baddies are plentiful in A Working Man, some with questionable fashion choices, all with questionable life choices… I think the baddie I hated most was Artemis… she was just sadistic. Props to Jenny for not being a totally helpless damsel in distress, as her actions help add to the overall action content in the movie.
A Working Man reunites the action dream team that brought us The Beekeeper last year and delivered more R rated action goodness this year… something I believe the world could use more of. A Working Man was a well put together actioner with a litany of brutal kills, a little bit of vehicular mayhem and so much firepower!
The added wrinkle that Levon has a young daughter himself did not feel like it was needed to tell this story properly and because of that, the movie probably was about 10 to 15 minutes heavy, but that is a minor complaint when you look at the overall picture.
I am about to make this A Working Man review 3 bullet points heavier…
- Familiar Face: David Harbour of Violent Night fame played Gunny Lefferty, Levon’s friend and comrade who becomes invaluable when Levon hits the point of no return.
- Bastard Count: There was one subtitled “bastard” in A Working Man.
- Soundtraxx: A Working Man featured an old school favorite of mine, Patrick Hernandez’s “Born To Be Alive”… If that’s not old school enough for you, then you will be happy to know that Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” is also featured.
