Jason Statham has had a fascinatingly varied film career. While he’s been in popular blockbusters like The Expendables and the classic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, he’s also been in many very forgotten movies. And right now, one of his recent overlooked movies is doing very well on streaming.
According to Flixpatrol, Wrath Of Man is currently the number one movie on Amazon, the sixth most popular film on iTunes, and the tenth most popular movie on Google Play. This is a stunning display of success for a non-franchise film. Released in May 2021, the film sees Statham team up with legendary director Guy Ritchie for the fourth time.
The film is loosely based on the Nicolas Boukhrief movie Cash Truck from 2004. It is split into four distinct parts, each of which ties together to form the conclusion. Statham plays H, a mysterious man who works for a cash truck company in Los Angeles. This company moves cash around the city, delivering it to stores and institutions that require it. Overall the company moves hundreds of millions of dollars around every week. At first, H seems to be a low-end employee, and he only barely scrapes through the company’s hiring tests. However, when a truck is robbed, H stops it single-handed, skillfully shooting the robbers.
This leads to questions about H’s past and why he has decided to work with the cash trucks. However, as people start to dive deeper into H’s history, things get more complex. Several older events begin to knot together, creating a chain of actions and reactions.
When the film was released, it did well at the box office, making $104 million worldwide despite the general cinema downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Reviewers praised the movie, and it has a 66 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Many critics praised the story and the action sequences, saying they gave the film the excitement you would expect from a Guy Ritchie movie. However, they also argued that the film was surprisingly formulaic and did little that had not already been done in other films, especially in the film’s ending sequences.
Audiences were much more agreeable, and it currently has a 90 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. While many audience reviews echo the critic reviews, it seems that audiences are generally much more open to the concept and are less worried about the film’s originality.
Wrath Of Man is a fascinating film that shows why Jason Statham is often considered the modern king of action. His on-screen intensity helps make even the most generic storylines feel exciting. But, as Wrath Of Man shows, he has a surprising range and can carry deeper and more involved narratives.