But after H disrupts an attempted robbery, killing all those who dared in the process, it becomes clear that he’s not just some hired hand. A mysterious new employee, known as H (Statham) starts working for an armed vehicle company, transporting money and goods from one place to the other, a job that he’s quickly told makes him less predator and more prey. It’s a remake of the 2004 French film Cash Truck, telling a simple story in an often overly convoluted way, as if Tarantino was tasked with structuring a Liam Neeson thriller. There should be a similar roar of approval meeting Wrath of Man, a refreshing reminder of what a real movie actually looks like after over a year of flatly produced streaming guff, especially noticeable within the action genre.

The giddy thrills of Godzilla vs Kong and the silly schlock of Mortal Kombat have both hit big, proving that audiences will return en masse if there’s a visceral reason for them to do so. It’s therefore an apt time for them to be working together again and, while a bit threadbare, the film acts as a jolting return to form for them both, a propulsive exploitation pic that should also continue a winning streak of crowd-alluring B-movies that have helped US cinemas crawl back to normality in the last month. His follow-up, 2020’s uneven comedy The Gentlemen, was an attempt to revisit former glories yet with a slicker skillset, and there’s a similar marriage of grit and gloss with his latest, bullish action thriller Wrath of Man, reuniting him with the Stath, an actor in need of more distinctive and distinguished direction. Statham’s shtick, often brilliantly subverted for comic effect (see: Spy), was also wearing thin when broadened out (see: The Meg), while Ritchie’s initial vigor had dulled with each project bigger than the last, with the anyone-could-have-directed-this anonymity of Aladdin feeling like a tipping point. But the simultaneously steep ascents came at a price.

Guy ritchie, jason statham movies