Jason Statham’s A Working Man Is the Taken-Meets–John Wick Thriller Dominating Streaming
Seven months into its chart run, A Working Man from The Beekeeper director David Ayer is still gaining steam.
If you want to see Jason Statham punch, kick, and glare his way through another meat-and-potatoes action thriller, you won’t run out of options anytime soon. But sometimes, a formula works—and apparently, a lot of you out there agree. Statham’s latest one-man-army adventure, A Working Man, has quietly become a beast on streaming, pulling days in the US top 10 that most other movies can only dream about. Never mind what the critics say—more on that in a sec—the people clearly want more Statham.
The Stath: Still That Guy
Let’s be honest, there are only a handful of actors left who can slap their name on a poster and guarantee an audience. Jason Statham is one of them. You know exactly what “a Jason Statham movie” means: a guy with a troubled past, a lot of scowling, and a tendency to solve problems with his fists instead of a phone call. The world may be moving on from old-school action stars, but Statham’s still getting the job done.
What’s 'A Working Man' Actually About?
The plot isn’t reinventing the wheel, but that’s kind of the point. Statham plays Levon Cade, a former black-ops guy who traded in his commando gear for a blue-collar job on a construction crew. Sounds peaceful, right? Of course, that doesn’t last: when the daughter of his boss—basically family—gets kidnapped by human traffickers, Cade jumps back into action mode. Turns out the bad guys are just the front for something much bigger and more corrupt than he bargained for. Think Taken meets John Wick, except this time it’s Statham’s show.
Who’s Behind—and In—This Thing?
There’s a weird bit of movie trivia here: David Ayer—who directed The Beekeeper—is also at the helm here, so if you liked seeing Statham smash beehives of villains last time out, you’re covered. The source material is Chuck Dixon’s novel Levon's Trade (from 2014), and the script is written by none other than Statham’s Expendables buddy Sylvester Stallone. That’s a lot of heavy-hitters behind the camera.
- Jason Statham as Levon Cade, the ex-black-ops guy turned construction worker (but let’s not kid ourselves, not for long)
- David Harbour as the boss desperate to get his daughter back
- Michael Peña, Jason Flemyng, Arianna Rivas, Noemi Gonzalez, and Emmett J. Scanlan rounding out the cast with various degrees of criminality or helpfulness
The movie hit streaming on MGM+ last March, rubbing elbows in the queue with titles like that new Robin Hood reboot, Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, cult series From, and even Chris Pratt’s box office sci-fi stumble, Mercy.
Audiences Love It, Critics (Mostly) Don’t
In news that should surprise absolutely no one: audiences gave A Working Man a hot 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, fully embracing the popcorn-fueled, bullet-spraying fun. Critics, on the other hand, basically shrugged—the movie landed with a 47% score from the pros. Do most critics appreciate Statham’s unique brand of blunt-force entertainment? Hard to say, but clearly viewers are getting what they came for.
'The consensus is that A Working Man is the perfect bang-bang shoot‛em up to go with your popcorn.' (That’s not official, but it feels about right.)
Bottom Line
A Working Man doesn’t do anything radically new—but it does exactly what it says on the tin, which is: Statham goes after the bad guys, and you have a good time watching him wreck shop. There’s a reason this thing has clocked in 219 days (and counting) in the streaming top 10. The only real question is how long we’ll have to wait for the sequel.