David Ayer’s latest movie “A Working Man” is a run-of-the-mill action flick which will not surprise you a lot if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me. As a sort of cross between “Taken” (2008) and “John Wick” (2014), it throws a lot of brutal action into the story while its unstoppable hero goes all the way for accomplishing his personal goal, but you may get bored a bit as observing more of how predictable and superficial it is in terms of story and character.

After the opening title whose graphic design looks laughably bland and cheap in my trivial opinion, we are introduced to Levon Cade (Jason Statham), who was once a fearless Royal Marines officer but is now working as a construction foreman in Chicago. As he begins another working day, the movie depicts how much he is trusted and respected by not only those employees working under him but also his boss, but we instantly sense the trouble when his boss’ adolescent daughter is about to have some fun evening time outside after doing some paperwork for her father’s business.

When his daughter is subsequently gone missing, Levon’s boss is quite devastated to say the least. He and his wife immediately report their daughter’s disappearance to the police, but the police are not particularly interested in finding their daughter, and they eventually come to request Levon to do the job instead as soon as possible.

Of course, Levon is very reluctant although he is indeed a man with a particular set of skills required for locating his boss’ daughter. After his wife’s tragic death, he has tried to leave behind his long history of violence for getting the custody of his little daughter, who is being taken care of by his father-in-law at present. Knowing well the violent past of his son-in-law, Levon’s father-in-law does not want his granddaughter to live with Levon at all, and he and Levon have already been conflicting with each other over the custody of Levon’s daughter.

After discussing a bit with one of his old comrades, Levon eventually steps forward for the girl who has been like another daughter to him, and it does not take much time for him to discover that she was taken by several nasty people associated with some of the most dangerous and powerful criminal figures in the city. Needless to say, this discovery does not deter him at all, and his following murderous quest soon draws the attention of the aforementioned criminals, who certainly do not welcome this sudden disruption in their criminal business.

As its hero clashes more and more with his dangerous opponents, the movie naturally provides a number of physical action scenes, and Ayers, who is no stranger to gritty action as shown from his several previous films including “End of Watch” (2012), handles these action scenes with enough skill and mood. At one point later in the film, Levon walks into a lurid bar full of the members of a local biker gang, and you may be amused a bit when the movie shows the gang leader sitting on a big metallic throne reminiscent of the similar one in HBO drama series “Game of Thrones”.

However, the screenplay by Ayer and his co-producer/co-writer Sylvester Stallone, which is based on Chuck Dixon’s 2014 novel “Levon’s Trade”, does not have much substance or personality on the whole. Often grim and ponderous, the story is often too serious about itself to be a pulpy fun, and many of the characters in the film are more or less than cardboard figures to be eliminated in one way or another along the story. Moreover, Levon is not interesting enough to distinguish himself among those countless tough and stoic action movie heroes out there, and that is the main reason why we come to observe his actions from the distance without much care or interest.

At least, you will probably admire how steady Jason Statham is from the beginning to the end. Yes, he is playing another British tough guy here in this film as he has frequently done during last two decades, but he is still capable of exuding his star quality as before, though I must point out that his indelible physical presence was utilized more effectively in Guy Ritchie’s equally grim but more interesting action thriller film “Wrath of Man” (2021). 

Most of the notable main cast members of the film are regrettably under-utilized as often being limited by their thin supporting roles. Michael Peña, who was wonderful with Jake Gyllenhaal in “End of Watch”, is wasted without not much to do on the whole, and the same thing can be said about Jason Flemyng, who once appeared along with Statham in Ritchie’s two crime comedy films “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1998) and “Snatch” (2000). As Levon’s old comrade, David Harbour simply comes and then goes during his brief appearance, but he manages to steal the show while also enlivening the movie a bit.  

Overall, “A Working Man” turns out to be not as awful as I worried, but it is still not good enough for recommendation. To be frank with you, right after my brain was stimulated so much by Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film “Battle After One Another” (2025), I needed something to make my brain a bit less active, and “A Working Man” did that job to some degree, but, folks, there are already many other recent action flicks which can provide a lot more dumb fun and excitement than this.