Filmmaker Guy Ritchie has long shown a willingness to embrace almost any blockbuster format a particular studio might want to offer him. Experience the noisy Sherlock Holmes-era shots he took with Robert Downey Jr. or his recent live-action look at Disney’s Aladdin. But his most entertaining films remain the tough, nasty crime thrillers with which he began his career in 1999 with “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”.
His new “Wrath of Man” is such an item, although it’s darker and less exuberant than “Lock”. It’s also a remake of the 2004 French film “Le Convoyeur”. Ritchie does better here with used material than with “Aladdin”, not to mention “Swept Away” (2002).
Jason Statham plays Hill, a mysterious, silent tough guy who takes a job at an armored car company that was recently hit by murderous robbers. His coach, Bullet, shortens Hill’s name to “H.” “Like the bomb,” Bullet explains to a colleague.
H proves his prowess by single-handedly hijacking a truck in which, in an extraordinarily satisfying moment, he pulls out a punk played by pop musician Post Malone. H’s staff greet him as a hero, but other characters wonder who exactly this guy is and what he’s doing on this job.
As Kirk Douglas pointed out in “The Fury” and Liam Neeson in “Taken,” there are certain men whose families shouldn’t be messed with. Here Statham is one of them. The severity of H’s true mission explains the tone of the film. Ritchie reveals key story points with clever time-juggling editing and keeps the tension going well into the climax of the film, which delivers exactly what the viewer was hoping for.
Wrath of man
Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the Policies of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before viewing films in theaters.
