Working Title

David Ayer has made another profession-based action film with Jason Statham. Last time was bees, now he's just A Working Man (2025).

Statham is a construction foreman for Michael Peña's firm in Chicago. He's well loved by his crew and Peña's family. He also has a young daughter who is in the custody of her grandfather - he sleeps in his car to save money to pay lawyers to help get her back.

Ariana Rivas plays Peña's daughter, who just started college. She goes out for a night on the town with some friends and gets roofied and abducted by some shady characters. Peña turns to Statham for help, because he knows he was a commando in the British armed services. Statham isn't sure about doing this - he's trying to keep his head down for his daughter. But his friend, blind veteran David Harbour convinces him.

So he starts in the bar where she was last scene and goes from there. At each stage he picks up a new link in the chain, and usually kills a few people - sometimes before he gets any info. Kind of sloppy. 

And so it goes. Rivas was kidnapped by the Russian Mafia for sex purposes and sold to a random (?) pervert. I think he's random, but they didn't pay a lot of attention to him. Long story short, Statham finds her, and while he's taking out the henchman, she kills the pervert. And it all ends happily, with a hint of a sequel.

Now the screenplay was cowritten by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone, so it shouldn't be surprising that it is both less goofy and more cliched than Beekeeper. Also, a different kind of weird - there weren't any shadowy agencies or tech bro hackers funding US Presidents. Just standard combat veterans, Russian mafia, and the occasional biker. It was a lot less bonkers, although it was weird in some ways. For one, Statham really seemed to take his time searching for Rivas. No time pressure felt at all. 

Still, if you like Statham and sort of generic action, this was as well done as any. I have no complaints.