Wrath of Man

By Joanna Langfield

If you’ve been hankering for a big blaster, tossed with a big body count and some not so big twists, this one should hit your target.

Jason Statham ™ stars as a mysteriously grim man, bent on vengeance and able to deliver it. While I am (sort of) kidding about Statham’s trademark status as an action star, what he brings here is pretty much what his fans have not just come to expect, but also, it seems, want. Me? I’m all about the surprising Statham who showed a fantastic comic side in the underappreciated Spy. But rest assured, there are no hahas here, as Statham, under the enhanced for the weirdness moniker of “H”, takes a job at a money delivery company in Los Angeles, proving he’s just the man they need when bad guys show up to rob the armored truck.

There may not be laughs, but there is a decided energy to the movie, especially after we get through the obligatory introductions and down to business, i.e., the action scenes. Guy Ritchie, who directs, writes and produces, is more successful in some of these jobs than in others (there’s a screenplay?), but he and his crew, including the underused Andy Garcia, Josh Hartnett and Eddie Marsan, rev the engines on the stuff that fills the seats; explosions, male bonding, video-game morality and just enough of a juggled story to keep action hungry audiences happy.