Guy Ritchie is the reason why anyone even knows who Jason Staham is. Jason is one of the biggest action stars in the world and if it hadn't been for Ritchie picking the guy up for epic films like Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels Jason would probably just be some guy working cons on the street or retiring from modeling right around now.
Statham is an unusual actor in that he is always the same person in every film that he is in and while this is a good character, outside of very rare roles such as the one he played in Spy he is always the stoic and quiet and merciless stone-cold killer in literally every role that he is in. He also makes no attempt to change his accent regardless of the role that he is in and I find this particularly amusing when he is playing the part of an American, which is the case in Wrath of Man.
[src](https://static1.dienanh.net/upload/202106/2e958551-40ec-4bdb-b962-9fbaa58b82de.jpg)This film is your typical Jason Statham action film and that much is expected of the man. It works from an action and financial point of view but I believe that Guy Ritchie is (and should be) held to a different standard than your average film-maker. Ritchie co-wrote this film as well as directed and produced it and normally seeing Guy Ritchie's name attached to anything means that it is going to be an adventure that is different from most other options we have as far as films are concerned: That is not the case with Wrath of Man and had I not been paying attention at the start of the film I would have presumed that Guy Ritchie had nothing to do with it.
This film has none of Guy's usual creative story-telling or direction aspects to it, but instead this film seems like a cash grab where Guy realizes that if his and Jason's name is attached to it, it is going to make a ton of money and it did precisely that in that it made $60 million over budget.
Statham plays the role of "Patrick", who is a new hire for an armored truck company that apparently gets robbed on a daily basis every week. He of course, immediately excels at the job and the not so surprising twist in the story is that he has other motivations for his taking of this job other than just pulling down a paycheck. I'm not going to spoil the story even though I really don't think that people should bother with watching this movie. It's essentially exactly the same as every other Statham film in that he is a badass that comes out on top of every situation and he always has an answer to every conceivable situation.
This role was expected because it is literally the only role that Jason ever plays in every film that he is in and I am not going to fault the guy for this. Honestly, if you were making 10 million dollars a film to play essentially the same character in everything you are in, wouldn't you continue to do it? I know I would.
I guess you could just say that I expected more from Guy Ritchie. The dialogue, particularly at the start of the film, is just laughably bad. When I was watching it I couldn't help but feel like Ritchie didn't actually want to make this film but someone offered him millions of dollars to do it anyway, so he was like "OK, i'll make your stupid-ass movie for you."
From start to finish the film is extremely predictable and includes such things as the hazing of the "new guy" and not accepting him until he proves himself and this comes complete with actual locker-room harassment of Patrick (Statham) on his first weeks on the job.
The entire story is tired and typical and one thing that really stood out in my mind was the fact that this armored car company gets robbed basically every day, yet they don't do anything to change their operating procedures. Also, everyone has to wear black at all times. It's just stupid.
Should I watch it?
Resist your urges to be lured in by the past work that Ritchie and Statham have done together because this film is nothing like those. I am not familiar with all of Ritchie's films but this is in my opinion his worst work to date by far. I truly feel as though he simply doesn't care anymore or at least didn't on this project. I felt excited going into this movie because of Ritchie's legacy and the fact that he and Statham have done great things in the past. This film fails on all fronts if the attempt was to recapture that magic that the duo have had in the past. This film is funny, but for the wrong reasons. It is a cliché of the highest order and I contemplated turning it off multiple times while watching it. Having seen it to the end, nothing surprising happened and it is one of the worst movies I have endured in quite some time.
It literally has no redeeming qualities and Guy Ritchie should be ashamed of himself for making this turd.
