They promised it would be unrelenting. They promising it would be fighty. They promised Jason Statham would get annoyed and shoot people. And, sure enough, Wrath of Man has delivered all those things – as well as a bit where the Stath instructs another human being to ‘put their arsehole back in their arsehole and leave this to me’.
Directed by Guy Ritchie, the crime thriller sends Statham on an undercover revenge mission as a security truck driver searching for the perps responsible for a violent heist.
Fans of the British action star will be well fackin’ satisfied by his presence at the heart of Guy Ritchie’s moody new vengeance thriller, which lands in the US today. But what of the rest of the movie-watching world? The reviews are in and there’s some positive notices in some quarters, less so in others.
In the ’yes’ camp, Vanity Fair was mostly seduced by the film’s stylishly-mounted action sequences. ‘It’s an honest-to-goodness movie meant to be seen, and luckily available on, the great canvas of a multiplex screen,’ says critic Richard Lawson.
I liked the loud bang-bang movie! https://t.co/vrjNd6Mwqg
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) May 6, 2021
There’s more praise from the LA Times, which describes it as ‘a burly, entertaining entry into the “dudes rock” cinematic canon, as imagined by Ritchie in rare form.’
Review: Guy Ritchie, Jason Statham, guns and mayhem are lethally reunited in 'Wrath of Man' https://t.co/giVSC7n9Nu
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 7, 2021
Matt Zoller Seitz of Roger Ebert.com calls it ‘one of Guy Ritchie’s best-directed movies – and one of his most surprising’.
“The completeness and sureness of the movie’s aesthetic is a joy to behold, even when the images capture human beings doing savage things.”—4-star review of the neo-noir crime thriller Wrath of Man, one of Guy Ritchie’s best films. Loved it. https://t.co/dAAqLP7khy
— MZS (@mattzollerseitz) May 6, 2021
Indiewire’s David Ehrlich is less convinced. ‘Ritchie,’ he writes, ‘can’t help but complicate a straightforward action thriller into a steroidal tragedy full of cryptic title cards, perspective-swapping flashbacks, and enough moral equivalency to make you wonder if anything matters beyond who’s alive to fire the last shot.’
WRATH OF MAN feels like Guy Ritchie trying to do Heat, except he can't stop himself from casting Josh Hartnett as a wimpy guy named Boy Sweat Dave or having Jason Statham deliver hardcore dialogue like "did you go poo poo?" wild stuff.
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) May 6, 2021
my review: https://t.co/IfjIrq60B6
Wrath of Man crashes into US theaters today. Read Time Out’s full verdict here.
UK cinemas are reopening this month and here’s what to see.