'Wrath of Man' review: Guy Ritchie's 'Rashomon'

Courtesy of MGM

The new thriller “Wrath of Man” makes it clear from the opening scene that this particular action film is going to play things differently than what you may be used to. In it, we witness an armored truck being robbed but the camera stays inside the vehicle, only allowing audio and faint visuals to seep into consciousness. It’s a tense and arresting way to start the film and the mixed bag that follows still makes for an overall fun ride.

In the wake of the aforementioned heist, which left civilians dead and money missing, Fortico Security has upped its game and hired new recruits to protect its highly valued cash trucks. One of them is the steely-eyed H (Jason Statham), a man as mysterious as his name. He walks in and keeps things low-key with shift leader Bullet (Holt McCallany), barely passing the entry exam.

But trouble strikes during H’s second day on the job with a group of bandits and the introverted employee immediately shifts into a killing machine, mowing down the would-be-robbers with marksman precision. Suddenly his coworkers are starting to wonder why such an overqualified creature would want this crappy job, and those answers turn out to be more complicated than necessary.

The film was directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie (“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”), who has worked with Statham before and knows how to bring out his strongest qualities onscreen. Their latest pairing is more “Snatch” than “Revolver” and that’s just fine since Ritchie’s bread-and-butter is this exact kind of machismo action picture. He’s an expert at padding holes in logic and chunks of terrible dialogue with flashy visual style and an excellent cast of supporting actors ready to play. Sometimes it doesn’t work as well but in this case it definitely does, with reliable names like Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett, Scott Eastwood and an uncredited Andy Garcia onboard.

“Wrath of Man” may be overstuffed at times with unnecessary plot but the film is never boring. The first half shines brightest as a tightly wound whodunit of meathead intrigue but even the uneasy second half entertains as time suddenly shifts backward to see how the film’s core mystery came to be. This is also the second film in recent years to take a “Rashomon” approach to an action vehicle. The other was the cops and robbers film “Den of Thieves” and while both movies ripped off the vastly superior “Heat,” each copycat still managed to make their respective brand of goon lunacy work.

Rating: B

“Wrath of Man” is now playing in theaters.