A Jason Statham action movie has received positive reviews once more for A Working Man, continuing the actor’s Rotten Tomatoes turnaround. Throughout his career, Jason Statham has become known as a star who can routinely deliver entertaining and successful action films. He did this once again in 2024 with The Beekeeper. The movie was so successful critically and financially that he partnered up with director David Ayer again. That inspired confidence that the 2025 film would similarly be a success story and generally well-received by critics when A Working Man‘s Rotten Tomatoes score debuted.
Yet, Jason Statham does not have the best track record on Rotten Tomatoes overall. Heading into A Working Man, his movies with “Rotten” scores (below 60%) outnumber the ones with “Fresh” scores (60% or above) nearly 3:1. Statham has had more success with critics in the last decade, though, and that continues with A Working Man having a 62% score on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. That’s still well behind Statham’s record-high Rotten Tomatoes score from 10 years ago, Spy‘s 95%, but the barely positive score is a significant milestone for him at the same time.
A Working Man Gives Jason Statham Consecutive Fresh Movies For The First Time Since 2021
He Is Now On A Fresh Streak
A Working Man‘s reviews mean Jason Statham now has consecutive Fresh movies on Rotten Tomatoes, following The Beekeeper earning a 71% score last year. This is significant as it’s been four years since he last had back-to-back movies be well-received by critics. 2019’s Hobbs & Shaw received a 67% score, and 2021’s Wrath of Man has a 69% rating. That was the last time Statham had consecutively Fresh movies on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s only happened one other time in his career too, with 2015’s double dose of Spy (95%) and Furious 7 (82%) being the first instance.
A Working Man and The Beekeeper‘s Fresh scores came at the perfect time for Jason Statham. He was amid a dismal four-movie streak on Rotten Tomatoes that transpired after his previous consecutive Fresh movies streak. 2023 was a brutal year for the actor, as he starred in four movies that all got largely negative reviews. Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (51%), Fast X (57%), Meg 2: The Trench (27%), and Expend4bles (14%) all came out that year and were widely criticized. It was his longest consecutive Rotten movies streak since 2015. Now, he’s back in critics’ good graces.
The Beekeeper & A Working Man Are Exactly What Jason Statham Should Be Doing
He’s Well Equipped To Lead Simple Action Movies
The success that A Working Man and The Beekeeper have had with critics, and audiences, is not surprising. These are the types of movies that Jason Statham should be doing. Due to his popularity and name recognition, he can sometimes get too bogged down by existing franchises. His abysmal four-movie Rotten streak before The Beekeeper was almost exclusively due to appearing in blockbuster franchises with poor characters, prolonged storylines, and unoriginal action.
These first installments are fun, original action movies that do a good job of just focusing on Jason Statham fighting bad guys
A Working Man and The Beekeeper are the opposite. They aren’t sequels in a bigger franchise, so viewers can easily watch them without any baggage. Both may wind up launching franchises for Statham, but at the core, these first installments are fun, original action movies that do a good job of just focusing on Jason Statham fighting bad guys. That simplified approach helps them work. So while he will undoubtedly continue doing franchises, standalone action films like A Working Man are better bets to do well on Rotten Tomatoes.
