Jason Statham’s A Working Man redeems his disappointing previous collaboration with Sylvester Stallone. In A Working Man, Statham plays a black ops agent turned construction worker who is forced back into his old life when a teenage girl is kidnapped by human traffickers. Director David Ayer, who helmed the Statham-led 2024 film The Beekeeper. A Working Man was co-written by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone, who has worked with Jason Statham before.

A Working Man‘s critical reviews are mediocre, citing David Ayer’s film as standard action fare, although general audiences seem to have a much higher opinion of the newest Jason Statham project. The actor has found a lot of success in projects similar to this one, so it stands to reason that A Working Man will land among them, even if it likely won’t end up on many people’s lists of the best Jason Statham action movies.

A Working Man Is A Better Jason Statham Action Movie Written By Sylvester Stallone Than Homefront

The Two Films Are Similar, But A Working Man Is Better

Homefront was a 2013 action film also led by Jason Statham and written by Sylvester Stallone, about a retired DEA agent who has to protect his young daughter from the whims of a dangerous gang. Homefront and A Working Man share a similar plot even if the specific details are different, but many action movies follow a similar story structure. However, both movies were also adaptations, with Homefront being based on a book of the same name, while A Working Man was based on a book called Levon’s Trade.

Sylvester Stallone is the other major connective tissue between these films. He was one of the major players behind the scenes of Homefront and A Working Man before Jason Statham’s involvement. While A Working Man isn’t anything particularly special, it plays to its lead’s strengths as an action star much better than Homefront. Homefront felt very generic, even by the action genre’s familiar tropes. A Working Man is a solid vehicle for Statham, and could easily become one of the actor’s more beloved films, especially considering Statham’s recent streak of flops.

A Working Man Beat Homefront’s Rotten Tomatoes Score, But They’re Both Still Rotten

Critics Still Don’t Tend To Love Jason Statham Movies

A Working Man has been received better than Homefront, but the difference in their critical reception isn’t all that stark when directly compared. A Working Man currently holds a 55% Tomatometer score with 78 reviews, compared to Homefront‘s 42% with 114 reviews. The newer film is an improvement, evidenced further by Homefront‘s much lower audience score of 61%, but A Working Man still wasn’t able to find the critical success that has eluded Jason Statham’s recent string of films.