I have only seen a handful of Guy Ritchie’s movies, but it’s enough to know I like his style overall. Even though there are a few movies that haven’t been good. Recently I felt he’s back in form with last year’s The Gentleman. Now here with Wrath of Man, again he’s in good form, although it’s less cheeky and a bit more brooding.
At its heart Wrath of Man is a heist movie and God help me, I really enjoy heist movies. However, it feels like this movie tries to hide that for at least for a good first third of the movie or so. Maybe Ritchie was wanting to approach it from another angle or just add more substance to a genre that’s been done so many times.
The movie is told in a nonlinear way, which Ritchie has done well with in his movies in the past. Wrath of Man uses this to its advantage. It gives out the information in a way that keeps the audience wondering and by the time you do know what’s going on, the movie either has it’s hooks into you or it doesn’t.
The movie starts out with a heist of an armored truck. It then cut to Jason Statham applying for work with the armored truck company. They call him “H,” for no reason other than apparently it’s too hard to remember Hill. From there the movie slows down a bit as it introduces us to the other characters that work for the company.
There’s some good talent in this movie. There’s Holt McCallany, Eddie Marsan, and Josh Hartnett that all work for this company. I really enjoy these guys when I see them in anything, but all the characters that work for this company kind of come off one note. A lot of the banter between these characters makes them seem the same. However, the movie does try to give them their due and give them… well character, flaws and all.
Then there’s the other team. The heist team. I don’t don’t want to say much more on that, but there’s some good talent there as well with Jeffrey Donovan, Scott Eastwood and Laz Alonso. They all kind of stand out a bit more from each other.
They definitely stand out from the armored truck employees. They clearly are military-like, work great as a team, and are professional. This is not some ragtag team thrown together. Then again this is a staple of heist movies, especially these days.
The movie keeps you wonder what’s going on with the way they layout the plot. It’s clear that Statham’s character is over qualified to be riding around in armored trucks, but his true intentions soon become clear. Statham comes off as the typically strong and silent type, something he’s found to work well for him.
The action, can’t forget the action. The start of the movie is a little slow, but the action throughout is a lot of fun. Statham isn’t too much with the hand-to-hand combat in this, but the gunplay is great. I will say this about it though, the always dead-on accurate marksman characters that only shoot once and always get headshots is a bit played out now. It happens here too and it’s cool to see, but it seems like something happening in action movies too often now, such as John Wick and Taken.
Wrath of Man can be called a revenge tale, but again at its heart, it’s a heist movie. I can see arguments being made either way, but I don’t see any reason for that. It works great for both and is told well in a way that allows you to see it as both if you so choose.
The directed is great, the writing is good and the acting, although one note at times, does have a bit of shine to it. Overall, it’s a great movie.
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