David R. Walker

Archive for May 10th, 2021

Wrath of Man

Director: Guy Ritchie

Cast: Jason Statham, Scott Eastwood, Holt Collany, Josh Hartnett, Jeffrey Donovan, Andy Garcia, Eddie Marsan, Chris Reilly, Niamh Agar, Eli Brown

Stylistically not as brilliant as The Gentlemen, maverick British director Guy Ritchie has produced an enjoyable and twisty action thriller with his new film Wrath of Man set in a smoggy Los Angeles.

Ritchie has assembled a mostly male cast for this heist revenge thriller, headed by action man Jason Statham (The Fast and the Furious, Snatch) as the mysterious H; along with Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin, The Black Dahlia) as Boy Sweat Dave, Holt McCallany as Bullet, Jeffrey Donovan (Let Him Go, Honest Thief) as heist co-ordinator Jackson and Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott Eastwood (Pacific Rim Uprising, The Fate of the Furious) as the villainous Jan. All the action takes place in a murky downtown Los Angeles and centres on the ruthless world of cash-in-transit robberies.

Taking inspiration from the far more glossy Christopher Nolan film Tenet, Guy Ritchie reconstructs the action from several different timelines so initially audiences will be slightly confused but as the narrative unfolds in four parts, all the players will emerge from an intricate plot as H goes on a revenge mission to discover who killed his son Doug played by Eli Brown, who unfortunately happened to be in the car near a vicious robbery and became collateral damage.

While the dialogue in Wrath of Man does not match up to the macho innuendos of Ritchie’s previous British action film The Gentleman, the action and bravado in this film is extremely hectic as H gets embroiled in a plot dreamed up by Jackson to rob the cash in transit depot after all the armoured trucks have received the cash from Black Friday also known as the biggest shopping day on America, the day after Thanksgiving.  

Naturally everything goes south as H. has to defend himself against a ruthless gang of thieves who feel nothing at slitting each other’s throat to get a bigger slice of the spoils. Jackson and the blue-eyed Jan are the main perpetrators and Jeffrey Donovan and Scott Eastwood are well-cast in these parts.

Wrath of Man is a gritty, old fashioned action film about robbers betraying each other and features a surprise cameo by Cuban born actor and Oscar nominee Andy Garcia (The Godfather Part III) as the mysterious Agent King.

Viewers that enjoy a good twisty action film, will love Wrath of Man as they watch H, the tough guy faithfully played by Jason Statham rip out the Lungs, Liver, Heart and Spleen of his victims specifically the vicious psychopath who killed his innocent son during the bloodiest Black Friday heist ever seen.

Certainly not as good as Guy Ritchie’s other films like Sherlock Holmes, The  Gentleman and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Wrath of Man is worth seeing for the action sequences and gets a film rating of 7 out of 10.

Catch Wrath of Man in cinemas now.