A Working Man (2025) review

Construction worker Levon Cade (Jason Statham), a former member of the Royal Marines making a living in Chicago and trying to raise his child (his wife took her own life), is asked by his boss Joe Garcia (Michael Peña) to locate his teenage daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) after she was abducted from a bar, which eventually pits Cade against the Russian mob.  This follows the ever-popular "revenge" template utilized by movies such as Taken (and, prior to that, certain Charles Bronson features) except its commitment to being deadly serious (as opposed to The Beekeeper) is a let-down, and it only gets more dopey (and derivative) as it goes along when it involves multiple henchmen wearing gawdy clothing, a drug dealer named Dutch (Chidi Ajufo) who sits in a George R. R. Martin-esque throne and blind soldier Gunny (David Harbour), who conveniently has a large number of weapons hidden in his home for Cade to use.  One could make the argument it has a "conservative tone" - it's about attempting to restore the family unit, defending one's territory from foreign invaders, etc. - but I doubt anyone involved (including co-screenwriter Sylvester Stallone) gave that much thought, since the main focus is on Statham cracking heads, drowning people and lobbing grenades.  His reward?  The young lady is returned safely and he can "enjoy" a few shots of Malört.