ICYMI: Wrath of Man may be Jason Statham’s Best
If you’re a Jason Statham fanatic, no doubt you’ve been shouting from the mountaintops about Wrath of Man. And if you haven’t seen it yet, you’re in for a treat.
With the constant flood of streaming series, digital releases and movies fighting for our attention over the past handful of years, it’s easy for even a great action flick to slip through the cracks. Released in 2021, Wrath of Man is absolutely worth circling back to—and it may very well be Statham’s best performance as a leading man. Its certainly my favorite of his.
Statham stars as “H,” a quiet and mysterious new employee at an armored truck company. It doesn’t take long before his coworkers, and the audience, realize that he is far more dangerous than his résumé suggests. Revealing any more would take away from the experience, but let’s just say that Statham is a man on a mission, and everyone standing in his way is about to have a very, very bad day.
Think Jason Bourne, only more brutal, less interested in running away and carrying a level of rage that’s always teetering on showing its face behind Statham’s stone cold emotions.
Director Guy Ritchie knows exactly how to use Statham. The pair have been working together since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and that familiarity shows. This was their fourth movie together, following those two films and Revolver, and Ritchie understands that Statham doesn’t need a five-minute speech to take control of a scene. Sometimes, a stare, a few carefully chosen words and the promise of extreme violence are more than enough.
The film also avoids telling its story in a simple straight line. It jumps backward and forward in time, revisiting key events from different perspectives and slowly filling in the blanks surrounding H’s identity. Each shift adds another piece to the puzzle without killing the momentum, eventually bringing every moving part together for a relentless final act.
Then there is the supporting cast.
We get a welcome Josh Hartnett sighting—and honestly, who doesn’t want more Josh Hartnett? You get to see Holt McCallany bring the same commanding presence that made him so great in Mindhunter, since Netflix doesn’t agree with the fans on that shows success. Jeffrey Donovan, Scott Eastwood and Andy Garcia also appear, giving the movie one of those casts where recognizable faces continue popping up without distracting from Statham’s revenge tour.
Anyone suffering from Statham fatigue might look at the poster and assume this is another variation of The Transporter or The Mechanic. You would be sorely mistaken.
Wrath of Man is colder, darker and far more deliberate than his other known action franchises. It still gives Statham plenty of opportunities to do what Statham does best, but it wraps that Statham flare inside an engaging crime thriller. The action hits hard because Ritchie takes his time building toward it, and when H finally lets loose, every bullet feels personal.
Replayability: Absolutely. More than once.
If you missed it the first go around, Wrath of Man deserves a spot near the top of your next movie-night list.
