WRATH OF MAN : Thursday 6th May 2021.

'WRATH OF MAN' which I saw last week at my local multiplex is an MA15+ Rated American action thriller offering Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Guy Ritchie and is based on the 2004 French film 'Cash Truck' Directed by Nicolas Boukhrief. The lead star of this film is Jason Statham, with whom Ritchie has worked on three previous occasions - 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'Snatch' and 'Revolver' with a fifth collaboration currently in the works on spy thriller 'Five Eyes'. Originally slated for a mid-January release but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this film was released in Australia last week, one week ahead of its US cinema release and not until 23rd July in the UK. It has so far taken US$8M following its earlier release in Russia, Germany, New Zealand and here in Australia, and has generated mixed or average Reviews so far.

The film opens up with Patrick Hill (Jason Statham) being interviewed for a new job at cash security firm Fortico by the manager Terry (Eddie Marsan) who tells Hill that his references more than check out, and that he has all the necessary credentials to come on board as a new security guard, including a pistol licence. Fortico collects tens of millions of dollars from around Los Angeles every week from hospitality venues, clubs, casinos, banks and businesses and are therefore considered an easy target. So much so that just a matter of weeks ago two of the firms security guards were killed in a heist on one of their trucks. Needles to say Hill is given the job on the spot. He is quickly introduced to his supervisor Bullet (Holt McCallany) who tells him that he will have to undergo four days of intensive training on driving and manoeuvring a cash truck and his shooting skills, and under the latter he needs to score a minimum rating of 70% to pass. After his first day he is introduced to a number of his co-workers. There is Boy Sweat Dave (Josh Hartnett), Dana (Niamh Algar) and a number of others who all treat the 'limey' with disrespect and indifference. All of this treatment is like water off a ducks back to 'H', as Hill has come to be known by his new colleagues, who tries to keep himself to himself, mingles when it is called for, and is pretty adept at playing the strong brooding silent type. 

We then fast forward three months and one day Bullet, Sweat Dave and H are out on a cash collection in their truck at the docks off loading only about US$10K from a recently berthed cruise ship. Bullet is on board for what should be a simple and routine pick-up. But something is not right and over the radio comes a garbled message that they are to drive the truck a couple of blocks to rendezvous with a bunch of crims who have Bullet captive, and they want the US$1.5M that is already in the back of the truck. Sweat Dave goes into a blind panic not knowing what to do for the best, while H remains cool, calm and collected and orders Sweat Dave to drive the truck. At the meeting point, Bullet is bundled out of a car and beaten to the ground. What ensues is a fire fight in which H shows off his very particular set of skills as a precise marksman by taking down all six crims singlehandedly, while Sweat Dave and Bullet are left speechless by what they have just witnessed. 

After this show of force, H is hailed a hero by his colleagues and Terry. After the fact he is interviewed by FBI Agents Hubbard and Okey (Josh Cowdery and Jason Wong respectively) wanting to clear up some details and show him video footage of the earlier heist on a Fortico truck which claimed the lives of the two security guards, to determine if there were any similarities in the crims MO. Afterwards, the Agents call their superior officer Agent King (Andy Garcia), who tells them to lay off Hill and let him do what he has to do, and that he will monitor the situation closely.

We then go back in time five months and Hill and his teenage son Dougie (Eli Brown) are about to go out to watch a game, but they are running ahead of time and decide to go get a bite to eat first. Hill's phone rings and it is one of his henchmen, Mike (Darrell D'Silva) who wants him to do a quick surveillance job of the movements of a Fortico truck as its leaves their depot. Hill says it's his day off and he has his son with him, but Mike responds with the fact that there is no one else available and it will only take a few minutes of his time. Reluctantly Hill agrees. Under the pretext of wanting to stop for a burrito from a food truck parked outside the Fortico depot, he orders Dougie to stay in the car with the doors locked. As the cash truck leaves the depot, turns right and heads under an overpass, the trucks route is blocked by construction workers. But these construction workers are not what they seem and they soon produce weapons and the necessary hardware to break into the armoured vehicle and steal the cash money contained therein. In the process the two security guards are both killed and shot, and Dougie is observed to be witnessing all of this and is also shot four times and killed outright. At this Hill rounds the corner and witnesses his son lying dead on the ground, he runs towards him only to be shot three times sending him crashing to the ground as he looks up at the gunman wide eyed but motionless. 

A couple of weeks later Hill comes round in a hospital bed with a doctor standing beside him. The doctor tells him he is lucky to be alive having taken three bullets and lost a quarter of his blood. Hill asks after his son and is told that he died at the scene. Later Hill walks out of hospital and back into his office where Mike, Hollow Bob (Rocci Williams) and Moggi (Babs Olusanmokun) are in attendance saying that they have done everything they can do to locate the perpetrators of Dougie's death, but have drawn a blank. Meanwhile, Hills ex-wife, mourning the death of her son, blames Hill directly for his slaying, leaving him speechless.

After slaying all of the lowlife crims in the neighbourhood who may have had an inkling as to who the perpetrators were responsible for Dougie's death, and having so far still drawn a blank, they hit upon a lead who tells them (under immense duress) who the crims might be. We are then introduced to a bunch of ex-soldiers led by Sergeant Jackson (Jeffrey Donovan) who are all working dead end jobs, as bored as Hell watching TV and drinking beers all day long, and after some excitement in their lives and ideally a big pay cheque. Jackson suggests to his former soldier buddies Jan (Scott Eastwood), Tom (Chris Reilly), Sam (Raul Castillo), Carlos (Laz Alonso) and Brad (Deobia Oparei) a robbery from a wealthy man who Carlos works for but this yields them only a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Jackson later suggests a heist on a cash truck, which eventually leads then to the heist on the Fortico truck in which the two security guards were shot and killed, together with Dougie and in which Hill was collateral damage. 

After successfully pulling off that heist the crims lay low for a couple of month before their next heist. Jackson tells them not to spend up big and just to go about their normal routines so as not to attract any undue attention to themselves. Then comes a major pay day in the form of Black Friday in which Fortico will collect upwards of US$160M in cash. Eight weeks of intense preparation is needed in the lead up to the big day, and all the guys are in, tempted by the excitement of their next 'mission' are the prospect of retirement at the other end. The day duly arrives, and Fortico is as well prepared for every eventuality as it can be. The crims know the high stakes they are playing for and what can go wrong but their planning has been meticulous. Jackson fears only one man in his gang - and that is Jan, the loose cannon, who has attitude, the temperament and the mouth to go with it. Despite being told to lay low he has a furnished warehouse style apartment and a US$28K brand new motorcycle, much to Jackson's chagrin. 

In the truck making their way back to the Fortico depot, Bullet confides in H that he likes him, but that he has a confession to make. Bullet is the man on the inside, feeding intelligence to Jackson and telling him which trucks to hit and when. Bullet is telling H this because he needs his cooperation when they arrive back at the depot to make it look as though all is good to gain access inside. H is surprised and agrees to go along with the plan asking 'what's in it for me' to which Bullet replies with 'your life'. 

Once inside, the other gang members arrive and gain access and needless to say it's not long before a fierce gunfight breaks out as things go awry. H is led into a side room with Terry and Sweat Dave, and has his hands cable tied and is watched over by a pair of the crims wearing full assault gear from head to toe. Meanwhile, all out war is going down outside with Jackson and his remaining crew exchanging rapid gunfire with everyone else working for Fortico. Bullet is making out that he is being held against his will and used as a bargaining tool for the crims to gain access to the main vault. With the shoot out intensifying one of H captors leaves the room to join the fray. This gives H his chance to overpower the remaining one which he does so, ultimately strangling him. In the meantime Terry is on the phone to the S.W.A.T. team who are en route, albeit eight minutes away, and Sweat Dave is dithering about unsure of what to do - fight or flight!

H picks up the automatic weapon from the man he's just killed and goes off in search of the others. He gets into a fist fight with Tom and it doesn't end well for Tom who is killed with a knife to the jugular, while the others get shot up, leaving Bullet to dispense with Dana and a few others. Jan shoots H several times in the chest and leg, leaving hism prone on the ground motionless, but eyes wide open staring at Jan straight in the face. Jackson, Jan and Bullet are the last men standing although Jackson has sustained a bullet injury to the neck and is beginning to look decidedly pale by the time the cash truck crashes out of the depot, pursued by a convoy of Police vehicles. The truck heads down the highway chased closely behind by the Police, a S.W.A.T team and a chopper above. Eventually the truck heads into an underground parking lot, and as the Police vehicles are about to enter Bullet activates the bollards by remote control to come up out of the ground so preventing the Police from gaining access. Unknown to the authorities there is a secret tunnel leading out of the parking lot, that does not appear on any of the schematics as the lot was built in the '50's and the site has since been redeveloped, masking the tunnel from any blue prints. This was Jacksons plan all along. While Jackson is bleeding out Jan and Bullet off load the bags of cash onto two waiting quad bikes that they drive through the tunnel to a parked up Prius at the other end. While Bullet is attending to the stash of cash Jan goes back to the truck and finishes off Jackson by slitting his throat.  

When the pair arrive at the Prius they load up the boot with the money bags. Bullet knows that Jan can't be trusted and so pulls his gun. When Jan returns from opening the gate, he pulls his weapon before Bullet has time to respond, and shoots him through the head without hesitation. Jan successfully makes his getaway with all the money. At his apartment, after stepping out of the shower, he finds a phone ringing in one of the money bags, which was planted there by H to track his location. H had survived and confronts him with Dougie's autopsy report before shooting Jan in the same places Dougie was shot (liver, lungs, spleen and heart), killing him. Agent King is waiting outside to collect the stolen money while H drives off with one of his associates. 

'Wrath of Man' is an enjoyable, well orchestrated piece of action cinema that both Ritchie and Statham are renowned for with set pieces that more than deliver, an ensemble cast of familiar names, and enough shoot 'em up violence and cuss words to please any lover of the genre. With several time shifting storylines, this revenge and retribution offering is often brutal and uncompromising in its depiction of low life criminals and a man on a mission who will stop at nothing to see that his own brand of justice is duly served on those that wronged him. Statham is light on the fast talking quips and one liners trading these in for brooding menacing dialogue that on occasion misses the mark, but is countered by the fast paced action and the actors cold blooded performance. For Ritchie this is not quite up there with his recent 'The Gentlemen', or his earlier works 'Lock, Stock . . . ' and 'Snatch' but it proves his versatility as a film maker of the action crime drama, and as for Statham you know exactly what you're gonna get, but this would be one of his more noteworthy films in recent memory. At a running time of just under two hours, the film feels slightly over extended and perhaps ten or fifteen minutes could have been shaved off, although this would be a minor criticism only.

'Wrath of Man' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-