As demonstrated in last year’s The Beekeeper, blend director David Ayer and star Jason Statham, and the result is hyper-violence.
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| The calm before the storm: Jenny Garcia (Arianna Rivas) goes over construction project details with Levon Cole (Jason Statham, right), while her doting father (Michael Peña) watches approvisngly. |
Along with Statham’s signature karate, wushu, Wing Chun kung fu, Brazilian jiu jitsu and kickboxing.
At best, the result is a vicious, violent and vicarious guilty pleasure, but there’s no denying the satisfaction of watching deplorable villains get what they deserve. And goodness, scripters Ayer, Chuck Dixon and Sylvester Stallone came up with a bevy of baddies: Russian Mafia lords and goons, opportunistic mid-level snakes, human traffickers and a squadron of biker thugs.
Can one man really take on such a barrage, and live to tell the tale?
Silly question. We’re talking about Jason Statham.
The title credits montage reveals that Levon Cade (Statham) served as a member of the British Royal Guard during some nasty military action. In the present day, he has become a construction foreman employed by Joe Garcia (Michael Peña), who runs the operation alongside wife Carla (Noemi Gonzalez) and college-age daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas).
Aside from being haunted by his former military actions, Levon also is blamed by his wealthy ex-father-in-law, Jordan (Richard Heap, truly unpleasant), for his late wife’s suicide. To that end, Jordan seeks full custody of his adorable adolescent granddaughter, Merry (Isla Gie), because he sees Levon as a PTSD-riddled ex-soldier unfit to raise a child.
This is why Levon has been sleeping in his truck outside the construction site each night, and subsisting on home-cooked meals supplied by the Garcias and other sympathetic construction workers, while saving money to battle Jordan in court.
Set-ups of this nature are key to Statham’s popularity, because — as is the case here — he often plays troubled, blue-collar guys with a sense of honor, and an unwillingness to bow down to any sort of opportunistic scoundrels determined to screw regular folks.
Thus, when Jos and Carla’s daughter disappears, after a night partying with friends, they naturally ask Levon to revive his “particular set of skills” in order to find the young woman, and bring her home.
Levon initially isn’t sure, given that such involvement could jeopardize his chances of retaining at least partial custody of Merry. He therefore pays a visit to longtime war buddy Gunny Leffertz (David Harbour), now blind but no less capable, and living in a wilderness retreat. In effect, Levon seeks Gunny’s permission to re-engage in their former lifestyle.
“Why ask,” Gunny replies, with a smile, “when you’ve already made up your mind?”
Harbour is marvelous in this role, as a bearded, deceptively gentle, quietly wise Yoda, who probably knows Levon better than he knows himself.
Needless to say, once Levon re-ignites his “working man” status, woe to all those who cross his path.
And what an assortment of nasties they are. Got a score card handy?
Jenny has been kidnapped by Artemis (Eve Mauro) and Viper (Emmett J. Scanlan), who intend to traffic her to the squirmingly debauched Mr. Broward (Kenneth Collard). Viper is something of a numb-nuts, and yields authority to Artemis; Mauro makes her a true piece of nasty business. She’s cheerfully horrifying, and likely insane.
Both are in the employ of Dimi (Maximillian Osinski), the ne’er-do-well son of Russian crime lord Wolo Kolisnyk (Jason Flemyng). The former is a debauched, coke-sniffing hedonist who nonetheless controls a sizeable operation; Flemyng’s Kolisnyk has the regal bearing of old-world Russian evil. He’s quietly, venomously scary.
Kolisnyk’s close colleague is Symon Kharchenko (Andrej Kaminsky), always accompanied by leisure-suited bodyguards Danya and Vanko (Greg Kolpakchi and Piotr Witkowski). The latter two are played somewhat for laughs, but still are dangerous. For attention-getting wet work, Kharchenko summons Nestor (Ricky Champ) and Karp (Max Croes, genuinely terrifying).
Then there’s Dutch (Chidi Ajufo), who runs his own mid-level operation — subservient to Dimi — out of a seedy biker bar on Chicago’s outskirts. He’s also ex-military, which — when Levon works that far up the food chain — affords a measure of mutual respect during their initial meeting.
But that takes awhile. Armed with computers, trackers, long-range cameras and eavesdropping equipment, Devon begins by surveilling Johnny (David Witts), tending bar where Jenny was last seen.
And we’re off to the races.
Although Statham carries the bulk of the story’s gleeful carnage, Rivas’ Jenny comes into her own during the second hour. Pluck and grit are insufficient descriptors; Rivas makes her intelligent, crafty and a total bad-ass, within her character’s limitations. By the third act, you’ll be yelling, “You go, girl!”
Young Gie also has some nice moments with Statham, during cute father/daughter exchanges. Merry is wiser, and more savvy about matters, than Levon expects; their relationship is just as much of two equals, as parent and child.
(Both actresses bumped my final rating up half a star.)
All this said, at just shy of two hours, Ayer’s film is at least one or two brutal skirmishes too long; it becomes tedious. How many times can goons be blown backwards by high-powered bullets, before it gets old?
(Alas, the film loses that extra half-star because of the massive hanging chad left at the end.)
Statham’s fans will eat this up, and the film certainly is a guilty pleasure. But Statham has done better, and he needs to be careful ... lest he become a parody of himself.
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