1 of 5 | Jason Statham is “A Working Man,” in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon Content Services LLC
LOS ANGELES, March 25 (UPI) — A Working Man, in theaters Friday, never quite reaches the magnificent heights of last year’s Jason Statham vehicle, The Beekeeper. Nevertheless, it delivers a satisfying action movie with Statham as a new hero.
Statham portrays Levon, a former Royal Marine now working for Joe (Michael Peña) and Carla Garcia’s (Noemi Gonzalez) Chicago construction company. When the Garcias’ daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped, the desperate parents hire Levon to find her.
Adapted from Chuck Dixon’s novel Levon’s Trade by Sylvester Stallone and director David Ayer, the story has familiar but reliable tropes. Levon’s set of skills are as particular as those of Liam Neeson’s character in Taken, enabling him to succeed where basic law enforcement fails, and no matter how many enemies attack him.
The Beekeeper elevated the genre with its cryptic explanations of covert agents and the flamboyant villains Statham’s Beekeeper faced. The baddies ranged from cyber scammers to outrageously high levels of authority, which made it even more fun.
The kidnappers in A Working Man are basic human traffickers funded by the Russian mob. They do their best to add flourishes in costume and demeanor, but no generic Russian villain is as memorable as the rogue Beekeepers who came after one of their own.
Human trafficking is also a much more real and unsettling crime. While cyber scams are real and devastating, The Beekeeper took it to a wonderfully absurd degree.
Still, it is undeniably satisfying to watch Levon shoot rapists and send them flying to the back wall of the room. He employs extraordinary interrogation on equally deserving targets, especially when he scolds them for unrelated but equally unsavory offenses.
There are fewer fights in A Working Man. Levon rescues one of his crew from gangsters as an appetizer, but the plot does not lead to as many scuffles. It still has a big finale with Levon taking on the mob and a biker gang at once.
The supporting characters exhibit maybe 1% more color than their plot functions require. Levon is fighting his late wife’s father (Richard Heap) for custody of his daughter (Isla Gie), so it’s nice to see Levon prove his worth to his father-in-law later in the film.
Jenny misses a piano recital when she’s kidnapped, so when she finds a piano in captivity and plays, it has earned that poignancy. In addition, Levon’s war buddy Gunny (David Harbour) is so lovable as a blind marksman that it is a shame he only babysits, rather than joining in the action.
Even though he’s a working man, the film does get Levon in a suit for one scene. Levon cleans up as well as Statham in The Transporter.
It is clear A Working Man was made by people who know what fans come to see in a Statham movie. Both Ayer and Stallone are frequent collaborators.
Perhaps the source material kept Working Man more grounded, or maybe adding the Statham elements made it far more outrageous than Dixon’s version. Though it’s not the best, it is the Statham movie that’s in theaters right now, and that’s not a bad thing.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
The reviews are in for Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi flick Disclosure Day – and so far the consensus is that the great director has delivered another worthy addition to his canon of alien movies.
The film – which is released in UK cinemas today – currently boasts a score of 85 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes after 137 reviews, while its score on fellow review aggregator is 74 based on 47 reviews.
While those scores are a little lower than his previous two movies The Fabelmans (92 per cent on RT and 85 on Metacritic) and West Side Story (91 per cent on RT and 85 on Metacritic), it still indicates that the vast majority of critics were broadly on board with new movies.
Radio Times gave a mixed 3 star review in the film, praising the iconic filmmaker for injecting some of his classic awe-inspiring moments into the movie that “highlight why for so long Spielberg has been considered the unimpeachable king of entertaining big-budget filmmaking”.
We also gave a positive verdict on the performances – particularly from Emily Blunt – but remarked that the screenplay from regular Spielberg collaborator David Koepp “has a clunky and unfocused quality that occasionally makes it difficult to truly fall under the film’s spell”.
Elsewhere, the film received 4-star reviews from The Guardian, The Independent, The Evening Standard and Empire Magazine, while on the other end of the spectrum there were 2-star verdicts from The Times, The Telegraph, Little White Lies and BBC.
Meanwhile, the film perhaps received more glowing praise across the pond, with top marks from RogerEbert.com and positive write-ups in The Atlantic, IndieWire, Vulture and The Hollywood Reporter.
Disclosure Day stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo and Colin Firth, with the synopsis reading: “As a massive government conspiracy unravels, a targeted whistleblower races against time to bring about the extraordinary event that will change human history forever: the day of ultimate alien disclosure.”
Disclosure Day is released in cinemas on Wednesday 10 June 2026.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Recent times have shown us the impending horrors of late-stage capitalism. Quite the statement to start with.
Well… knowing this audience, this is an obvious statement. One could go on and on about how much this system has taken from people and easily become lost in the chaos. However, Boots Riley’s newest movie chooses to embrace chaos — a colorful and absurd chaos, that is. I Love Boosters is an afro-surrealist dreamscape that interrogates the hypocrisies and contradictions of capitalism while highlighting the importance of community, action and especially disruption. The film designs a new look for the revolution that shocks and inspires the audience to take action.
Keke Palmer (One of Them Days, Akeelah and the Bee) stars as Corvette, an aspiring fashion designer and leader of the booster team, The Velvet Gang, a group that shoplifts high-end clothes and sells them at a discount price. Corvette works alongside her two friends, Sade (Naomi Ackie, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Mickey 17) and Mariah (Taylour Paige, The Toxic Avenger, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F) as they try to make ends meet. When Corvette discovers that designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore, St. Elmo’s Fire, The Substance) stole the design she had submitted for a contest, she targets Metro Design, Smith’s fashion chain. In the midst of their plan, they meet and team up with Jianhu (Poppy Liu, Hacks, Dog Man), a Chinese factory worker protesting the poor working conditions of Christie Smith’s factories. Things get even more insane when they discover that Jianhu has a teleporter — and uses it in their heists to rob stores, leading viewers to discover more about the device.
Those expecting a typical narrative about revolution and taking down the system won’t find that here. Rather, I Love Boosters tries to be a revolution in its own way against Hollywood and the looming dread of the AI bubble through its storytelling and filmmaking. Riley takes full advantage of this medium and builds a world that is bursting with color and off-the-wall visuals — like the Smith’s slanted building or the crazy costumes worn by The Velvet Gang. He even goes as far as calling back to classic films like Jason and the Argonauts, with a live-action/stop-motion hybrid sequence that brings joy to anyone who wants tactile-ness back in movies.
Riley also forgoes any semblance of subtlety, but still manages to pack so much substance into the film. Of course, the visual gags can be peeled back to reveal deeply harsh truths about our world. Mariah’s hilarious trick to lighten her skin by holding her breath speaks volumes about the exhaustion black people deal with when code-switching. Or take the entire dissertation we get mid-way through the film about dialectical materialism, essentially telling the audience that Karl Marx is required reading for a workers’ revolution.
The film also acknowledges the messiness that comes with organizing and how acceleration is necessary for meaningful change. This goes without even diving into the uniquely black aspects of the film. The parts that speak specifically to the ones who lead the way in times of revolution and the roadblocks they face, from the appropriation of their art to the exploitation of their labor.
By focusing on the fashion industry, Riley dissects classism and elitism that exists in the space that is meant to celebrate human expression. The film basically states that those at the top are the artists, while everyone else is the art. In other words, those at the top shape the world into what they want it to be. But in truth, everyone wants to be an artist and put some of themselves into the world. When we do that, we can undoubtedly create a more equitable society.
Praise should also be given to the actors in this film. The leading ladies disappear into their roles, while bringing a level of charm and energy to every scene that makes you believe in their friendship. Of course, Paige steals the show in every scene she is in with her endearing performance that brings out the best in Palmer and Ackie. Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Iron Man 2) and Will Poulter (We’re the Millers, Midsommar) were also standouts. Cheadle, as the pyramid-schemer Dr. Jack, gives a great performance through layers of make-up and Poulter steals the show in every scene he is in as the uptight, petty Metro Designs branch manager Grayson.
While I praised the film for exploring so many meaningful aspects of revolution and actualization, you could still feel how busy this film truly is, which left certain ideas feeling underdeveloped. LaKeith Stanfield’s (Knives Out, Sorry to Bother You) character touches on the idea that men often steal women’s ambitions and souls to fulfill their own needs. While this did give us quite a memorable scene, his presence felt tacked on. Also, with so much happening in the movie, there were moments where the story felt like it was lost. Nonetheless, Riley manages to bring it all together in the end.
Once again delivering a scathing criticism of capitalism that is equal parts hilarious and optimistic, Riley’s approach to storytelling oozes with unconventionality, and through it he creates imaginative visuals that both shock and impress you. At the end of the day, I Love Boosters is a celebration of collective action that reminds us just how interconnected our issues are. —Angela Garcia
Read more film reviews by Angela Garcia:
Film Review: You, Me & Tuscany
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(L-R) Jennifer Lopez as Jackie Cruz and Brett Goldstein as Daniel Blanchflower in ‘Office Romance’
| Photo Credit: Netflix
When you see the first rushes or even the stills of a rom-com like Office Romance, reasonable expectations are set. Easy-breezy rom-coms are few and far between. So, the prospect of JLo starring as a bosswoman AND romancing Brett Goldstein aka grumpy Roy Kent? Sign me up… or so I thought.
The R-rated workplace rom-com kicks off with considerable promise. Jackie Cruz (a radiant Jennifer Lopez), the CEO of commercial airline AirCruz finds herself on the receiving end of a ludicrous, yet high-stakes lawsuit from competitor Falcon airlines. When the head of her legal team is hospitalised after choking very inconveniently on a breakfast burrito, Daniel Blanchflower (Brett Goldstein) steps in.
The attraction is fast and furious, and feels especially challenging to sustain in an organisation that heavily comes down on even the whimper of a workplace romance. Jackie’s best friend, a heavily pregnant Sydney Bloom (Betty Gilpin), is also constantly on vigil. While Jackie is a self-proclaimed workaholic who comes with considerable baggage, Daniel has his own secrets; a sister stashed away in prison.
Director: Ol Parker
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Brett Goldstein, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford
Runtime: 115 minutes
Storyline: A CEO and her company’s legal head navigate workplace challenges and embark on a romance that takes over their lives
A workplace setting offers up so much potential in a rom-com (remember Set It Up?), especially when it features shifting power dynamics like in this one. In the initial stretches of the film, it’s a true pleasure witnessing Daniel being the bumbling, far-from-charming romance hero, who is rendered unable to even form a coherent sentence in the presence of Jackie. Once you settle in for the sparks to fly however, all of this is short-lived.
Amidst all the prolonged eye contact at boardroom meetings, occasional workplace banter, try-hard crude jokes and an ongoing legal tussle, Office Romance never really lands. It doesn’t quite embraces its breezy and cute side, nor does it go full throttle with the R-rated jokes or gags. The result? A middling muddle of cliches that feel flat, and far from entertaining.
Jennifer Lopez as Jackie Cruz and Brett Goldstein as Daniel Blanchflower in ‘Office Romance’
| Photo Credit:
Netflix
The leads, JLo and Brett (who also has writing credits on the film) do enjoy some brief, sparkling chemistry as they jet set to pristine beaches, enjoy a string of dates all over the city (without ever being spotted) and sneak around the office. There is however little else we learn about them — in brief flashes we hear of Daniel having to settle in New Jersey to be closer to his sister, or about Jackie’s previous marriage and her need to be taken more seriously by her board of directors or her father whose legacy she is carrying on; but that is it. There is no conversation that intrigues, the dialogues are stail and all of this in no way gives the characters any depth, which means we in turn hardly care for them.
The excessive expletives feel forced into the dialogue, the entrily unnecessary and graphic childbirth scene, and a romance that hinges on a communication breakdown easily resolved with a single conversation, only add to the film’s dreary proceedings. In hindsight, the film’s promo tours with the two leads felt so much more compelling.
Pegged as Lopez’s much awaited return to rom-coms, the film ultimately feels like a letdown. This is especially frustrating given how thanks to Off Campus, Lopez and “On The Floor” is everywhere. Both actors deserved a better script, more romance and most importantly, more comedy.
Office Romance is streaming on Netflix
Published – June 09, 2026 07:24 pm IST
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