A WORKING MAN

Name: A WORKING MAN
Item: A WORKING MAN
Author: Review

"One-Man Wrecking Crew and Family Man"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

A WORKING MAN is an action thriller set in Chicago. Jason Statham stars as Levon Cade, a retired, widowed British commando with a young daughter who worked with American commandos. Levon goes searching for Jenny, the college-age missing daughter of his boss. Jenny has been kidnapped by a Russian mobster’s son who traffics young women to rich people. Levon is a one-man wrecking crew, and Jenny isn’t just a victim. She fights back, using the karate skills that her father paid for when she was younger.

A WORKING MAN is a riveting rescue thriller with exciting action and some humor. It features a hero who suits the many talents that Jason Statham has been bringing to action thrillers for more than 20 years. A WORKING MAN has a strong moral, pro-family worldview. Also, at one point the kidnap victim starts reciting the Lord’s Prayer at a dire moment. Sadly, though, A WORKING MAN has lots of strong foul language, with many “f” words. There’s also some very strong violence, with a high body count. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises very extreme caution.

Content:

(BB, CC, PP, LLL, VVV, S, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral, pro-family worldview as hero (a widowed former commando with a young daughter) fights against Russian mobsters to locate and rescue the college-age daughter of his boss, the boss and his family are Catholic, and the daughter starts to recite the Lord’s Prayer at one point while the two kidnappers are transporting her, plus Pro-American and patriotic elements include subplot where hero served his country in commando jobs overseas with American commandos and is still friends with his American brothers-in-arms, and hero uses the skills he honed in that service to save kidnapped young woman;

Foul Language:

About 96 obscenities (including about 83 “f” words), villains say three GD profanities, three OMG profanities, and young woman gives two obscene hand gestures as she and hero leave a place where they overcame many bad guys;

Violence:

Very strong and strong violence includes many gunfights with hero killing many henchmen, lots of very strong and strong hand-to-hand combat, hero appears to break some arms and legs, several explosions, hero ties Russian mobster to chair hanging over pool to gain information about young kidnapped woman, some head shots with guns, fighting with knives incudes some stabbings, hero throws hot coffee into mobster’s face to subdue him and interrogate him, girl escapes kidnappers and runs away at one point (will she escape?), and hero rescues his father-in-law from burning house set on fire by henchmen from the Russian mobsters hero is fighting;

Sex:

No sex scenes but implied sex trafficking (plot involves an ex-military man searching for his boss’s young adult daughter who’s been kidnapped to be sex trafficked by a mobster to a sleazy middle-aged man), sex trafficking client is mad at young woman because she bit his cheek off screen (requiring some stitches off screen) and he wants to cut her with large knife, but hero interrupts, and woman fights back, woman strangles violent man by wrapping her legs around his neck, van tips over and skids as two men in van fight bitterly against hero whom they’ve captured, gunshot hits van driver and blood splatters;

Nudity:

No explicit nudity, but some images of female cleavage;

Alcohol Use:

Some whiskey and beer drinking, images of people in bars, young women are shown bar hopping and seem tipsy until one is kidnapped;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Brief smoking, man snorts cocaine, hero sees bartender surreptitiously dealing drugs over the bar to people, hero infiltrates Russian criminals by buying meth and then dumping them down toilet and in a stream; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Kidnapping, story deals with the Russian mob, son of Russian mobster does criminal things without his father’s knowledge, and there’s a corrupt policewoman who’s in the employ of the Russian mobsters.

More Detail:

A WORKING MAN is a thriller set in Chicago about a retired, widowed British commando who worked with American commandos and goes searching for the missing daughter of his boss, who’s been kidnapped by a Russian mobster’s son who traffics young women to rich people. A WORKING MAN is a riveting rescue movie about saving a young damsel in distress, but it has lots of strong foul language and some extreme violence, with a high body count, so extreme caution is advised.

The movie stars Jason Statham as Levon Cade, a British commando retired from the military. He has a young daughter, Meredith or Merry, but shares custody of her with his American father-in-law. Levon’s father-in-law sees Levon as a PTSD-riddled ex-soldier who’s unfit to care for Merry.

So, Levon just wants to prove himself and work peacefully for his friend Joe Garcia, who owns a construction company in Chicago. However, he’s not above rescuing one of his co-workers when the man is physically threatened at work by three loan shark thugs.

Jenny, Joe’s college-age daughter, works for the family construction company in the back office. She asks Joe for some money to go out with her friends. He reluctantly gives her some cash, but comically complains about paying for everything while she grew up, including karate classes.

That night, however, while hitting local bars, Jenny and her friends visit a shady club run by a Russian mobster’s son. Jenny visits the ladies room but is kidnapped by a woman and a man working for the mobster’s son, Dimi.

When Levon returns to work that Monday morning, Joe and his wife tell him Jenny has gone missing and didn’t return home that weekend. Joe asks Levon to use his military expertise to find and rescue their daughter. However, Levon is reluctant because he’s been trying to move away from his military career, for the sake of his own daughter.

After visiting one of his miliary friends, a former American commando who lost his eyesight during one of their missions, Levon decides he can’t abandon his boss and the boss’s daughter. So, he visits the bar where Jenny disappeared and notices that the bartender there is dealing drugs to customers surreptitiously. He follows the guy home and forces him to tell him who’s behind the kidnapping.

The trail leads first to a Russian mobster, then to the mobster’s son, Dimi. As Levon follows the trail, Jenny fights back against her captors. The movie reveals that Jenny was targeted specifically because she fit a rich client’s request. Lots of money is at stake, so the captors try to keep Jenny alive despite her physical attempts to escape.

A WORKING MAN is a riveting rescue thriller. It features a hero who suits the many talents that Jason Statham has been bringing to action thrillers for more than 20 years. The script is co-written by Sylvestor Stallone with the director, David Ayer, who also directed Statham in the popular 2024 thriller, THE BEEKEEPER. This time, the damsel in distress turns out to be strong and sassy. She’s not just a victim. Also, at one point, when it looks bleakest for Jenny, she also starts reciting the Lord’s Prayer. When her two captors try to shut her up, she fights back again.

A WORKING MAN also has some funny parts. For example, the bad guys don’t understand why Levon is so relentless. They don’t understand that Levon wants to save Jenny but also because he’s a father, like his boss. In addition, the movie includes a brief scene with his own daughter where Levon recognizes that she’s both a product of a British father and an American mother. He gives her a special patch with both nation’s flags stuck together. The movie may remind some moviegoers of the first TAKEN movie with Liam Neeson.

Sadly, though, A WORKING MAN has lots of strong foul language. For example, it has about 83 “f” words. A WORKING MAN also has lots of action violence, and some of that violence is very strong, with a high body count. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises very extreme caution.