A Working Man Reviewed

Back in the 80s, there was a friendly rivalry between Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They both released movies like clockwork.

Here’s some of Arnie’s greatest hits from the 80s: Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, Commando, Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man.

Here’s some of Sly’s: Nighthawks, Rocky III, First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rocky IV, Cobra, Rambo III.

Now here’s my guess for your experience of those movies if you, like me, have seen most of them: You can name some one-liners from each one of the movies but the lines from the Arnold movies tend to be lines from Arnold and the ones from the Sly movies tend to be lines from the bad guys. If there’s a speech you remember from Stallone, it’s a surprisingly heartfelt one and if there’s a speech you remember from Arnold, it’s a somewhat over-the-top one. (No Pun Intended.)

Well, that continues here. Stallone avoids snappy one-liners* and focuses instead on longer speeches only when absolutely necessary but mostly lets the action speak louder than words.

Which is good, because Jason Statham plays the exact same role that he has played since, oh, Crank. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course! If you enjoy a good Jason Statham movie, know that this is a good Jason Statham movie.

Now we’re going to wander into spoilers territory and by that I mean more plot points will be revealed than those that can be gleaned by watching the trailer. So if you’re wondering if you’d like this one? Yeah. You’re going to like this one. If you know “there’s no way that I would *EVER* watch a movie like this!”, well, this ain’t the movie that’d change your mind.

Still here? Okay.

I came out of the theater thinking that this was the script that Stallone started writing in his head as he was walking out of John Wick. He really liked the protagonist, he really liked the universe, he really liked the supporting cast… but he had strong opinions about the morality hidden in the theme.

For example, in John Wick, the Continental and its associated culture is a culture of order and stability. It’s a bunch of assassins who find themselves at each others’ throats far too often. The Continental provides an oasis of gentility in an ocean of chaos.

Stallone looked at that and said “No. There are two types of people who kill professionally… soldiers and organized crime. Soldiers are the good ones. Organized criminals are the bad ones. Duh. Sure, occasionally, you’ll find yourself in a story where a vigilante is called for and, in that case, you’ll need an ex-soldier but if you’ve got a society of organized criminals who are involved in assassination, THEY WILL BE BAD PEOPLE. They will not have a society that is good or admirable. They will have a wicked society that caters to wicked people and you will feel better when you see this society dismantled. But the sommelier thing? I liked the sommelier thing.”

And so that brings us to A Working Man. Our protagonist is an ex-soldier who is taking on an organization of criminals. They’re involved in drugs, human trafficking, gambling, jaywalking, you name it. Our protagonist works for a construction company owned by a small Latino family and the daughter in the family is kidnapped by these organized criminals.

Jason Statham is going to bring her back.

And we find out that Organized Crime has a bunch of little tiers and branches in the subculture and we explore a little bit of each one and culminate in a grand conflagration out in this universe’s version of The Continental (it’s a *LOT* seedier).

And after everything, after the end of Jason Statham has brought back his friend, he immediately goes back to being domestic in the world he is working to build. The violence thing is a tool, not a profession. At the end of the flick, Statham just wants to put his old tools down and pick up his new ones and get back to work.

So… what are you watching?

(Featured image is one of the promotional shots for the film.)

* (There is a notable exception for one exchange: “You’re a cop” “You wish I was a cop”)