A Working Man (2025)

There is a sense that you have seen it all before. Of course, you have. Which is exactly what the expectation should be when you walk into a Jason Statham flick. It’s critic proof in a way, that the reviewers would be genuinely intrigued if at all something original and brilliant appears on screen.

I like Statham ever since I saw him in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), and felt he would have a great future. I was right, but I never thought he would be surfing in the hardcore action wave. Even in the worst ones, Statham can be quite entertaining – may it be the physical moves or the sense of humour that he picked up from the Guy Ritchie films.

This has the run-of-mill plot of someone dear getting kidnapped and the protagonists goes and gets the person. The film is co-produced and co-scripted by Sylvester Stallone based on a novel by Chuck Dixon. If you have watched too many John Wick or Liam Neeson flicks, you will find this film very ordinary. But then, you walk into a Burget King outlet, you ain’t gonna order no Linguine in tomato sauce with chopped basil. You have Angus Signature burger which is exactly what I am having while I write this (no, I am not paid by BK).

I liked it fine. The burger. The film? Well, it has some pretty good action sequences, bad guys you want to hate, the kidnapped gal who is not a damsel in distress, and the stoic Statham kicking asses. The end indicated that there might be a sequel. Let’s see.