Going in blind, I assumed A Working Man would be just another generic Jason Statham actioner. But then I see it’s produced by Sylvester Stallone and written by him and director David Ayer. I picked up a little. None of these three men are a guarantee of quality, but at least they have done good work in the past. And, hey, if your idea of a good time is a stylish looking but wholly generic Statham flick, you’ve come to the right place.

The film stars Statham as a man with <say it with me> a certain set of skills. When his boss’ daughter is kidnapped by evil Russian gangsters, he goes on a mission to save her. Meanwhile, he has his own daughter who might be taken by the Courts since former soldiers with a certain set of skills don’t deserve visitation rights. I guess.

This flick has a strong first act involving his cute relationship with his little girl and his friendship with Michael Pena and fam. Nothing amazing but it looked good and Statham’s grim stoic guy routine cracked a little around the daughter. I was set for a good enough time.

But then… one too many generic Russian gangsters, one too many kind of ok but not really ok fight scenes. One too many scenes of Russians in smokey rooms, one too many extra bad guys to kill. The film stalls as it meanders towards a non-economical two hour runtime.

I think they also ADR’d the script to death with random kinda amusing but not too amusing asides and jokes. It was pretty low key and a little smirk-worthy but it very much felt like someone said they needed a little levity in this otherwise grim flick.

There’s nothing amazing – trust me – in this film. It’s Generic Statham Action Film #25. It’s straight up kill the Russians, save the girl. Done with a little extra visual style by David Ayers to differentiate it from all the other Statham flicks. It’s a good enough time if that’s your thing. I prefer a little more quirk, a little more sass, a little more genre mashup but I can’t say I was overly bored, I guess.

Score: 75