It was basically a fluke of timing that saw his silly giant shark chomp-fest The Meg (which had been delayed for ages) become a surprise hit around the time he turned out to be the best thing in The Fate of the Furious. Biff bang pow, he was starring in a spin off with The Rock and his star was back on the upswing.
His recent run has put the focus more on his comedy chops (thanks in part to his stellar work in 2015's Spy), presenting him as a somewhat gruff and lovable action geezer the whole family can cheer on. But his latest, highly entertaining film is a reminder that his career was largely built on the kind of action where a stoic tough guy kills a surprisingly large number of people and doesn't bat an eye.
Wrath of Man successfully transplants French heist thriller Le Convoyeur to LA, America's spiritual (and going by the crime statistics, actual) home of high stakes bank robbery since at least Heat - though it's more likely that the success of recent Gerard Butler vehicle Den of Thieves inspired this project. It's a slightly odd choice for director Guy "this is my fourth film with Jason Statham and I've already made a fifth" Ritchie, providing him with little opportunity for his usual light-hearted take on crime - though he does manage to squeeze in a bit of banter early on.
The story, which turns out to be slightly more complicated than it first seems, involves H (Statham) signing up for a job at an armoured car company that sends vehicles all over LA picking up vast sums of cash money. Everyone there is both extremely macho and somewhat on edge after a robbery a few months back that saw two crew and a civilian killed; it doesn't take long into H's time on the job for their jumpiness to prove to be justified.
The twist that isn't a twist is that when some stick-up crew tries to rob H's truck, they swiftly end up dead (RIP Post Malone) without H breaking a sweat. Some call him a hero; others are little more wary. It turns out that (surprise) H has an ulterior motive for taking a job at this particular firm, and that his particular set of lethal skills will come in handy for what's to come.
The story is fairly straightforward, but a few time jumps and shifts in focus flesh it out in some interesting ways. This is much more of an ensemble story than you might think (especially with Statham looming large on the poster), and the main focus proves to be as much on the people looking to steal (which include Jeffrey Donovan and an enjoyably sleazy Scott Eastwood) as it is on the people (ok, it's H) looking for revenge.
Aside from a few ominous chapter headings Ritchie strips his usual flash and flair out. What's left is some rock solid storytelling, an approach to the violence that plays up the brutality without wallowing in it (though as is traditional in LA heist films now, there is a lot of full-automatic gunfire), and a thrumming soundtrack that mostly switches between "oppressive" and "threatening". It's a top-tier heist film, packed with menace; crime fans will have little to complain about, and Statham fans even less.
There's a large number of moving parts in this film, especially when there's a heist going on, and Ritchie doesn't miss a beat. He keeps it all crystal clear without slowing things down, showing a confidence in his story that a lot of recent action films have lacked - there's a couple of moments where he skips past an obvious action beat to keep things moving, which shows a respect for the audience that's always appreciated.
It's telling that while the rest of the cast start out as cheery, quirky individuals who eventually find themselves ground down into survival mode, Statham starts out there and doesn't let up. It's the difference between an actor and a movie star - he can play one note throughout the entire film (one scene aside) and make it compelling from start to finish. It's his world: everyone else finds out too late they've only been living in it.
- Anthony Morris
I didn't get the 2nd heist. H was a boss and his men were attacking the van when he was inside.
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