David R. Walker

A Working Man

Director: David Ayer

Cast: Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Maximilian Osinski, Cokey Falkow, Michael Pena, David Harbour, Arianna Rivas, Piotr Witkowski, Greg Kolpakchi

Running Time: 1 hour 56 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

With screenwriters David Ayer and Sylvester Stallone based upon the book by Chuck Dixon called Levon’s Trade, A Working Man perfectly recreates a world of good and evil. In David Ayer’s universe, the evil villains are really bad: diabolical and ruthlessly violent.

A Working Man’s poster shows an image of the action star Jason Statham looking mean with a shotgun and a baseball bat and this tells viewers everything about a violent action film in which Statham’s character Levon Cade is a construction site manager who at the film’s beginning is down and out, sleeping in his car and battling to get custody of his beautiful young daughter.

A Working Man pits the honest hard working fellow against an evil crime syndicate that are involved in human trafficking and the kidnapping of young girls for kinky clients in distant locations on the outskirts of Chicago.

In this case, when the construction boss Joe Garcia played by Michael Pena’s daughter Jenny gets kidnapped on a girl’s night out, Levon is hired by the Garcia’s to find their talented daughter.

Levon with the help of his blind friend Gunny played by David Harbour enters the underworld of Chicago crime syndicates and discovers that the real perpetrators are the evil Russians. In this case these are not the Brighton Beach Russians of director Sean Baker’s Oscar winning film Anora, these are the crazy Russians with links to human trafficking, drugs and illegal gambling.

The Russian crime syndicate is thrown into disarray when the son of a Russian mob boss, Dimi Kosnyk played by Maximilian Osinski (In Time) hires two deadbeats to kidnap Jenny Garcia and then have to face the consequences of their actions when Levon Cade comes after the entire Russian crime family including the crazy twin brothers, dressed in matching haute couture tracksuits, Danya and Vanko played by Greg Kolpakchi and Piotr Witkowski.

The scene in the panel van when Levon takes on the twins is frenetic and then there is the final gruesome showdown in which director David Ayer does really ensure that audiences are taken into the depravity and decadence of the underworld filled with bloodshed and perversion.

One thing David Ayer does brilliantly is creating his evil villains and in A Working Man he does not disappoint.

Cinematographer Shawn White and production designer Nigel Evans do a superb job of creating a contracting aesthetic between the bright innocent world of normal law abiding citizens and the dark nefarious world of organized crime. The contrast is startling and effective.

South African audiences should watch out for a great cameo by SA actor Cokey Falkow (Jurassic World: Dominion) as Dougie a biker enforcer who also gets involved in Levon’s crusade to save the maiden from the underworld.

A Working Man is a violent kidnapping thriller with action man Jason Statham delivering on every level and gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10. This film is average with parts of the storyline sliding indulgently into excess while generally it maintains an entertaining storyline.

This film is recommended for action fans and lovers of David Ayer films like Fury, Suicide Squad and End of Watch.

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