As Bob Dylan said, the times they are a changing. When I was growing up, my big sister Kate, was a star athlete. Whenever I would go to any gym or sporting event, I would just be known as Kate’s little brother. Fast forward a few years, a touch of puberty, and nearly a foot more in height, I was the star athlete and Kate was known as Luke’s big sister. Did that stroke my ego? You beat it did. And did it feel good? A hard yes!
Wrath of Man is a film directed by Guy Ritchie and stars Jason Statham. These two have worked together to make such classics as Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and the even more impressive Snatch, with a small blip in there with pretty unknown Revolver. Overall the movies have been Guy Ritchie movies and they have been great. Ritchie’s last one The Gentlemen was awesome, you can read about it here, so I don’t have to tell you, I was looking forward to this.
A botched heist
It starts with a semi botched heist of a money truck. There are guns, explosions, snappy dialogue, a good start, and have I mentioned that I am lying in one of those beds at the front of the cinema. It is very indulgent to have the screen basically falling on top of you. I could get used to it.
We then meet H (Statham), who is applying to be a guard at the same place that just got their truck robbed. He is decidedly average at his application, just squeezing by for a 70% pass. But he gets the job and we are off with him and his adventure of delivering money around the city.
Colourful cast of characters
As with all Ritchie films, there is always a colourful cast of characters with witty dialogue and interesting names. There is Boy Sweat Dave (Josh Hartnett), Bullet (Holt McCalany), and Sticky John (Alex Ferns). Everything is going along swimmingly until Bullet gets ambushed on a typical job. Boy Sweat Dave starts freaking out and wondering what protocol is when H goes full cold-bloodied killer on it and takes out all of the ambushers.
There is a game afoot
The audience knows now that there is a game afoot and it starts to do the classic Ritchie time jumps so we learn some new information about H and why he is just driving trucks when he appears to be the 2021 version of Rambo.
Slick and stylish direction
Eventually, my run came to an end. My little sister stopped being Luke’s little sister and I started to be Tessa’s big brother. So it appears to be with Richie and Statham. Richie has made a few films recently that didn’t really hit the mark and Statham has become a bankable action star taking over the mantle from Bruce Willis as the short bald angry guy. Ritchie did elevate the film from a generic action film with his slick and stylish direction but it wasn’t a finely crafted Swiss watch of a film like his classics. It was a cut above Statham’s recent films like The Meg, however, this was definitely a Jason Statham film directed by Guy Ritchie rather than a Guy Ritchie film starring Jason Statham. Time humbles us all.
30 May 2021
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe