No. 351 : Wrath of Man (2021)

 

Wrath of Man at the IMDb

I saw a trailer for a new Guy Ritchie film starring Jason Statham, Josh Hartnett and Eddie Marsan called ‘Operation Fortune’ that looked a lot of fun. I was surprised to see it pop up on Amazon Prime, but it turned out it wasn’t the fun caper film from the trailer but a heist movie involving the same people. It’s almost like they finished one film early and decided to bash out another seeing as they had all the crew assembled. If my assumption of this cookie cutter approach is correct, one film would have to be the poorer cousin; but which one is it? It’s this one!

Jason plays his usual character - bald and gruff ex-special forces with a mysterious past - who on this outing is called ‘H’ - they may have been trying for a Steps sub-plot, but it wasn’t really developed. The film opens with a heist which we see from the security van’s crew’s perspective. Something goes awry and we hear that two guards and a civilian have been shot from the police radios - remember that for later.

We then meet Jason who is applying for a job at the security firm three months later. He’s told of the previous robbery and is taken through his paces by ‘Bullet’, the senior guard at the firm. Jason barely scrapes a 70% pass mark at the evaluation, but we suspect that he has more in his locker. True to form his van is soon held up, but Jason shoots up all the bad guys without drawing sweat or changing his facial expression. Company rules say that any incident involving a fatality means those involved should get a desk job, but the boss tells flunky Eddie Marsan that Jason should be promoted instead - he does have top billing, after all.

Meanwhile we meet up with the troupe of bad guys run by ‘Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan. He’s getting on a bit so he gets some help from Clint junior, Scott Eastwood. Scott has a bit of a cloudy eye, so we know from the start that he’s a total psychopath. The robbers are ex-military and are keen for a big score and target Jason’s depot on Black Friday when there will be $150 million cash on hand - haven’t these people heard of credit cards?

The narrative jumps back and forth in time with captions appearing regularly - at one point we are five months back and then it’s ‘3 weeks later’ from then or now? It does get a bit confusing. There are also chapter titles which define the 3 acts, which just come across as pretentious in a film with low aspirations, such as this. Just remember Jason has a soppy son he dotes on and that there’s a mole in the security network who is almost definitely the one you think it is from the start.

This was a half decent offering, and if you are of mind to stick on a mindless Jason Statham film you won’t be disappointed. This isn’t one of his light-hearted efforts where he drops a couple of zingers, this is the brow furrowed and no shit taken Jason with plenty of double taps and needless blood letting.

The non-linear narrative is easy enough to follow, mainly because every ‘twist’ was signposted brighter than a Christmas tree. We know Jason is on the path of vengeance - the title is your clue - and it didn’t take much mental agility to work our where he’d been wronged and who needed shooting to sort things out.

The characters are all wafer thin, but it did seem pointless to kill off virtually every one of them. I know it makes the baddie a bit more ‘boo hiss’ if he kills a few people we have investment in, but sadly the investment was nil, with the interest rate even lower.

Donovan had very little to do and it looked like a lot of the principals did their work in a few days when it suited their schedules. The film lacked any of the glamour or budget of what ‘Operation Fortune’ promises and clearly this effort will be seen as the runt of the litter. For a film like this to succeed you need to really care about the character and his motivation. Here Statham’s character didn’t make any sense, nor did his involvement in the initial heist. ‘We need you to tell us if the truck goes left or right’ says the mysterious overlord on the phone. Given the ambush was set up on the right it didn’t really matter what Statham called in, as that was their only chance of success anyway. Why Jason and his son stopped for a front row burrito was just illogical.

Anyway , slice and dice it anyway you like this was an unsatisfying revenge flick that had some decent gun play and a few familiar faces looking for an easy pay day. It was competently made but totally forgettable and a lesser Statham, if there is such a thing.

Best Bit : Jason drops his burritos ‘W’ Rating : 10/23

No.317 : Wild Card (2015)

Wild Card at the IMDb

Woeful pun title action next as Jason Statham stars as card player Nick Wild - he’s the original ‘wild card’. Worthy of Troy McClure that one.

Nick, who was probably predestined to be a Vegas gambler with that name, doubles as a body guard and hired muscle. The film opens with him acting like an prick in a bar and getting handed his ass by a baldy man trying to get off with a showgirl. Of course we guess the truth - Nick is taking a beating to make his client look good in true ‘Men Behaving Badly’ style.

All is not lovely in Vegas however as a girl is dumped outside a hospital, beaten and bloody. She’s a friend of Nick’s and wants revenge. Meanwhile Nick gets a job looking after software developer Benjamin off ‘Gentlemen Broncos’ and seeks advice from waitress Anne Heche. Nick finds out his friend’s assailant was a well connected mob guy who is best left alone, but after minimal convincing they head over to his suite to beat him up and steal his $50k.

They split the cash but Nick knows his card is marked. He is a terrible gambler but dreams of having a boat in Corsica and decides to try and gamble up his cash. A brief montage later he‘s up to $500k but after an episode at the cash out cage he decides to try for more and loses the lot.

With the gangsters moving in for the kill can Nick survive and live out his days in the sunny Mediterranean?

This was a decent action thriller with a cracking cast but it didn’t really go anywhere and was really just an excuse for Statham to beat people up in slow motion. He again demonstrates that his range is limited, playing Jason Statham once again. This one drives a cool car and drinks grapefruit juice so at least that’s slightly different.

Stanley Tucci showed up in one scene as a kind of mafia overlord and classed up the whole affair and it was good to see Anne Heche although she was wasted in a nothing part as a waitress. You also get George off Seinfeld in a go nowhere’ I’m available for one day only’ kind of part as a lawyer or something.

The action scenes were decent and played for laughs to some extent. The last big fight, where Nick takes on a pack of goons with only his diner cutlery set for weapons, was well done and brutally violent.

There was no deep delve into Nick’s motivation and Benjamin’s character was a total deus ex machina as he solves all Nick’s problems with a couple of lines and a magic envelope. It was decent fun however and a trim 90 minutes - just don’t expect to remember much about it in the days that follow your viewing.

Best Bit : Blackjack Montage ’W’ Rating 16/23

No.309 : War (2007)

War at the IMDb

Jason Statham, with his hair at critical point, stars in this routine thriller which has more than a little ‘Face/Off’ about it.

For some unexplained reason Cockney sounding Jason is working the Asian Unit for the FBI in San Francisco - later on his black, balder  partner is introduced and some one says ‘You don’t look Asian’ whilst Statham is in the background with his gor blimey trousers on.

We open with a moody dockland showdown. Jason and his partner have tracked down ‘Rogue’ a top assassin who uses signature bullets - you’d think the first thing you’d do as an assassin would be not have a signature, but let’s go with it. Statham takes a hit but he’s saved when his partner shoots the bad guy in the face and into the water. Naturally the body isn’t recovered and that spells bad news for the partner when Rogue shows up at his house and kills everyone and burns it to the ground. Well, to be fair, he singes it a bit.

We then jump ‘3 years later’ and Jason’s obsession with Rouge has cost him his marriage. He has a new partner in the shape of David’s boyfriend off ‘Six Feet Under’ and a failing relationship with his child - and authority. The Triads and Yakuza are at war with the FBI in the middle. It gets a bit confused but it’s the usual gubbins about honour with two antique horse being the main point of debate. Can’t they have one each and give us an early night?

Rogue steps out of the shadows and blow me, it’s Jet Li. He’s been to Saul Rubinek’s plastic surgeon, but sadly not a coach in diction. He's all quiet and enigmatic, but comes across as a bit dull. Jason starts to close in on his man but Rogue’s loyalties aren’t clear. Whilst working for one faction he is also stirring things up for them too. Can Jason solve the riddle of Rogue’s true identity and are things as they seem?

This was an OK effort, but nothing memorable -my IMDb score tells me I’ve seen it before but I didn’t remember the big twist. If you think it’s strange that Jet Li is playing a baddie , it really isn’t.

I felt the whole production was poorly lit and too dark. They may have been going for atmospheric but it was hard to see what was going on a lot of the time. It did look like a Japanese co-production which meant the film seemed off kilter with lots of seemingly pointless exchanges taking place in Japenese. That’s fair enough, but when a film is designed by committee it never comes across as a cohesive piece of work.

There were plenty of shoot outs and sword fights but these were generally just padding between the big revelations. Fair play to them for subverting my expectations, (again) but it did all seem too far fetched - I didn’t know plastic surgeons could whack a foot off someone’s height too!

Statham’s character was really one dimensional and although he was given a 70’s muscle car to add some depth, he was more ‘John Prick’ than ‘John Wick’. Shouting at subordinates and beating up witnesses is so ‘The Sweeney’.

Overall this was a workmanlike thriller with a couple of decent twists but not enough to set it apart in a crowed genre.

Best Bit : ‘With Compliments’  W Rating 14/23