A Working Man Movie Review

“A Working Man” is an Action Hero version of new tread on old tires. The beefy “Man” of the title is sent on a mission. Find a kidnapped daughter and save her from a gang that deals in the ‘human traffic’ business. The one “Taken” is not his daughter, but he still goes on a bloody rampage to free her.

Levon Cade (played by Jason Statham) was at one point a Royal Marine in Her Majesty’s Special Forces. One of his US Service buddies was a guy named Gunny (played by David Harbour) who lost his sight in the conflict. Levon has left the deadly missions behind and moved to the Chicago area. His wife passed away, and left Levon with a spunky daughter – Merry Cade (played by Isla Gie).

Levon believes in honesty, integrity and loyalty. He is exstremely loyal to his boss. He works for a local Hispanic land developer named Joe Garcia (played by Michael Peña). Joe and his wife Carla Garcia (played by Noemi Gonzalez) are creating a high-rise. Levon is the construction crew leader. He takes care of his guys, and they all think he is great.

Joe’s daughter is Jenny (played by Arianna Rivas). She knows that Levon Cade has an unspoken history of military missions of mayhem. But after a week-end clubbing party with her girlfriends — Jenny goes missing. Joe and Carla are distraught with worry. Levon is tasked with doing whatever he can to get Jenny back safe.

Armed with some spending cash from Joe — Levon gets to work. After all, he is a Working Man. He stalks out a seedy bar, the last place where Jenny was seen. He observes some shady stuff with the bartender. Levon gets less than a warm welcome when he goes to the guys apartment. Soon, there are three dead low-level Russian Mob goons.

Levon finds out the two of the goons are brothers. They are also sons — of a major Mob leader named Wolo Kolisnyk (played by Jason Flemyng). He is followed back his home by Levon. Levon spies on Wolo and sees how he mistreats his wife. She leaves, and Levon enters.

He tries to get more information about Jenny. Wolo is not help with her current location. So Levon decides to give Wolo swimming lessons — after he ties him to a chair. Levon has only one lead. Wolo Kolisnyk has three soms. Two are in the morgue. The third son is an outcast from the Russian mob. His name is Dimi Kolisnyk (played by Maximilian Osinski).

Dimi has a background of dealing in drugs and ‘acquiring’ young women — for a price. The only way to Dimi is by using the cover of ‘drug dealer’. Levon puts on his best scowl and goes to see a local dealer in Joliet who is in tight with Dimi. Dutch (played by Chidi Ajufo) is the leader of a drug-dealing motorcycle gang.

Levon gets into see Dutch, but first he has to pay off a bar bouncer. Dougie (played by Cokey Falkow) shows Levon the backroom at the bar. Levon takes on many of gang goons, by breaking bones and taking names. Dutch tells Levon he wants to do business. Levon is on his way to meet up with Dimi.

Part of Dimi’s ‘sex traffic’ business involves a couple of other sleaze bags. Viper (played by Emmett J Scanlan) and his girlfriend Artemis (played by Eve Mauro) are the ones who kidnapped Jenny. They deliver the ‘goods’ to a client who will pay them, and Dimi, very well. Jenny has other plans, and causes some great harm to the client.

Levon has been away from his own daughter for a few days. The Russian mob has tried to attack Levon by going after his father-in-law — and burning down his house. Levon takes Merry over to his old buddy’s house, so that she will stay with Gunney and his wife. Gunney also has an arsenal that could rival the mob’s fire power.

Wolo Kolisnyk, who is dead, has a brother — and of course, everyone in the Russian mob is involved in locating and eliminating Levon.  There are hired thug, punks, hoodlums, and henchmen — all on the lookout for Levon. But the only thing that Levon is focused on is Jenny. He knows that he wants nothing more than to free Joe and Carla’s daughter.

The number of bad guys goes up in droves, yet Levon only has himself and his ‘work tools’. But unlike the Construction trade, his tools are now guns, body armor, knives, and grenades. But he still will use a handy sledgehammer if there is one around.

Jenny is able to get loose, but it is misfortune to run into crooked cops on the mob payroll. Viper and Artemis get Jenny back to the client, for even more money. Dimi is taken prisoner by Levon. Everyone ends up in an old refurbished country house in the woods. In the dark sky, there is a full moon that seems to be borrowed from “Bruce Almighty”. It keeps getting bigger and bigger.

When it all comes together in the old house — all the ‘usual suspects’ show up. There are the Russian mob goons. There are the druggie biker gang led but Dutch. There are Viper and Artemis – who for some reason continue to act ‘dumb and dumber’. Jenny is still in peril — and Levon has enough deadly force to slaughter everyone thrice over.

Will Jenny be set free, and reunited with her parents? Will Viper and Artemis get taken out — like the garbage that they are? Will Dimi have chance to impress Levon with his smart wit, or show that he is only a half wit? Will Levon put his past military training to the best use – by getting drop on all the remaining member of the mob?

“A Working Man” is based on a book named “Levon’s Trade”. This movie might be a close recounting of this book. But it was adapted by some talented people. Screenplay was written by Sylvester Stallone and David Ayer. The Director, Ayer, co-wrote the screenplay with Rocky.

The standout is – of course – Jason Statham. Statham is a force of nature as the military-trained, tough Special Ops soldier who wants to do nothing more than live in peace. He has his trademark stubble on his grizzled face and a mean squint in his steely eyes. He gets his dialog out in a low growly sneer. That is what he is known for, and in this movie he does not disappoint.

The action is quickly paced but not totally frantic. The more bad guys that Statham takes out – about twice as many take their places. There are two other really talented actor who are badly underused (Michael Peña and David Harbour). Arianna Rivas plays a very spunky ‘damsel in distress’.

However, the overall plot borrows so much from “Taken”, “John Wick” and several other movies that it fails to really cause a massive spark. It is not to say it is a crazy fun movie to watch. To see Jason Statham go into a place and completely beat the snot out of everyone is a gas. It’s fun to see him use a high-tech gun, with a remote scope sight on his phone – and then tell Jenny it was all ‘Bluetooth’…

“A Working Man” is preposterous fun and a roller-coaster ride of mayhem and violence. But it cannot hide the fact that it has echoes of some much other, better movies.