Wrath of Man: Movie Review

Cast: Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Scott Eastwood, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett

Director: Guy Ritchie

Treading a similar route to Bob Odenkirk's Nobody, though with less of the humour and frenetic edges, Wrath of Man inextricably follows the Guy Ritchie formula to a tee, and reteams him with his Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' star.

A near mute Statham is H, a mysterious man who signs up to work as security for a cash truck delivery service. Seemingly average in all prior testing, H surprises all his colleagues when a heist goes wrong and he takes out all the bad guys.

H becomes a hero to the cash truck service and his colleagues for his seeming commitment to duty, but soon they begin to doubt who he is and why he is working for them....

Remade from the 2004 French thriller Le Convoyeur, Wrath of Man is clearly a Guy Ritchie joint, both in good and bad ways.

From some of the utterly appallingly awful dialogue that tumbles from his characters' mouths (proving Ritchie has never really left the East End of London since the 1990s - sample line "H like the bomb or Jesus H") to the penchant for some taut and brutal action sequences, Wrath of Man is clearly a film you're on board with early on - or not at all.

Statham is his usual action movie self, in that he rarely emotes throughout, delivers the required smackdowns and pretty much reins in what he's done before. But there's little really for him to do here except what the script requires, and to don his usual chunky cardigan attire to usual effect.

While Wrath of Man is divided into acts, with subtitles ripped from snippets of dialogue, the film's brooding edges and air of mystery are flatly punched 30 minutes in when the reason for H's behaviour becomes apparent. It feels like it's here that Ritchie fudges some of the tension by revealing H's hand too early, making latter parts of the film feel like unnecessary do-overs as sequences are replayed with more meaning.

There's no denying that in its final stages, there are vicarious thrills to be had from what Ritchie's concocted, but it feels like a long road to get there. Jumping timelines, providing motivations and once again exploring the seedier side of the underworld, as well as yet again criminally ignoring and underwriting any female characters, it bears all the hallmarks of a Ritchie joint - but little of the freshness and panache of what you've come to expect.

Mind you, it's all there to service the action - even if the big final showdown's overall effect is undercut by Ritchie cutting back and forth to a planning committee. Ritchie doesn't mess about, mixing bombastic sounds with the brutality of gunplay and delivering what you'd expect in bursts.

There's little of the levity of Ritchie's early work here - even if some of the truly awful dialogue uttered by the American owner of the cash truck company appears to be trying to inject some. But the sense of dourness that pervades does provide a welcome counterpoint to the darkness that runs within. 

All in all, Wrath of Man may spin its tale through the usual Ritchie web, and it may be enjoyable enough in parts, but elements of a frustrating execution of a morally grey tale overwhelm parts of the movie. 

It's solid enough Statham, and reasonable enough Ritchie - for a boys' night out, you can't really ask for anything more.