BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- “A Working Man” is a tale of vigilante justice told in a style so unique it cannot be classified. Much of its rejection of tropes and stereotypes can be traced to the Shakespearean style writing of modern bard Sylvester Stallone. Just kidding. This film is little more than a retread of so many action-only productions starring tough guys that have populated theater screens for decades. “A Working Man” is a blue-collar equivalent of a feature film as there is nothing fancy about the way it is written, acted or shot but it serves a purpose. Director David Ayer starts with the extremely familiar story of a man who has tried to put his brutal past behind him to live among average people. In this case, the working man is Levon Cade, played by Jason Statham. Because the actor has never read a line that he couldn’t mumble, having Stallone as the writer makes perfect sense. Cade has a special set of skills (oops, wrong movie) that he reveals when he must call on his military training in the black ops to help a friend. When his boss's daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas), is taken by human traffickers, he must revert to his killing ways to keep a promise to the young woman. ‘Lower Decks’ beams into new DVD, Blu-ray releases Once the thin premise is established – along with a very weak secondary story about Cade’s battle to see his own daughter – the film goes into assembly line mode. Enter the first bad guy (or guys). They get killed. Enter more bad guys. They also get killed. Enter even more bad guys. You get the picture. It all comes down to a steady stream of blood created by knives, broken bottles, guns and a few hand grenades. Even the bad guys lack any originality. The main group behind the kidnapping is made up of Russians. Unless you start to drift off and forget who is bad, the Russians either dress like they picked out clothes at a thrift shop for thugs or present killer stares as they defy the law. One of the laughable moments is the man who placed the order for the young woman to be kidnapped. He looks like the Penguin from the ‘60s “Batman” TV show and is about as ominous. There’s more death. That stops for some destruction and then ends up with a massacre melee. Anyone who has seen one of these vigilante movies can predict when and where the different layers of evil will be dispatched. One of the few detours from the standard and mundane is Jenny. She does get kidnapped but there is never a moment when she plays the victim. That is a big difference for a film like “Taken” where the kidnapped girl needed to be saved. The best way to watch the film is to leave your logic at the door. Stallone and Akers make no attempt to explain how a guy who is trying to bury his past has so much high-tech equipment and a fake driver’s license. Your head will really hurt when a thousand bullets are fired his way, and he never gets hit. That’s a trick he must have learned from John Wick. Heather Tom makes ‘Beautiful’ daytime history If the film seems familiar, Ayer and Statham teamed up a year ago to make “The Beekeeper.” That movie did nothing more than what has been presented so violently in a “John Wick” or “Equalizer” movie. Stop me if this sounds familiar but the plot has to do with a reluctant hero of few words who must step forward and kill dozens (maybe hundreds) of people to right a wrong that was going to go unpunished. That film had more energy and didn’t feel so pedantic. Just because a film deals with “A Working Man” doesn’t mean that the character has to be so unoriginal. The bottom line is that this is not a movie to be weighed on its artistic merits. That’s obvious because no one tried to do anything other than make it an average film. How it should be measured is whether the action is enough to be entertaining for fans of the genre. Those moviegoers will get more than a working man’s sample of action. A Working Man Grade: C+ Cast: Jason Statham, Arianna Rivas, Jason Flemyng, Maximillian Osinski, Merab Ninidze, Michael Pena. Director: David Ayer Rated: R for strong violence, language, drug content Running time: 116 minutes. ...read more read less