I’ve come to the (late) conclusion that Jason Statham has been doing the same movie for the past two decades, really. It’s called F**k around and Find Out. Sure it goes my a number of titles, Homefront, The Beekeeper, A Working Man, The Wrath of Man… It is all really the same thing. Statham is chilling, doing his thing, either as a single dad or just a dude laying low and quietly expecting not to be messed with. Then someone does. If not to him then to someone he cares about. Suddenly bro steps up and starts handing out the most epic whippings of the year. Then, after the beatings are done being handed out, he wanders back off into the ether.
I think this should be a genre of film in of itself. It’s already a trope: Don’t mess with the Nice Guy. It’s becoming more and more of a theme in modern films with Statham being the poster boy for such things. It feels like the conversation (or desire) being had and held by a generation of angry mostly American men. It feels like the base of a good deal of political fury, but I don’t want to talk politics. The conversation always starts with the bully. That person says or does something to provoke the nice guy, leading the nice guy to show them how this actually works. What concerns me is that the people who preference this model tend to be the ones who want to be bullies, not the ones who want to be prepared. They are often the same dude who packs heat waiting to use it. They want to be Roadhouse but are on the wrong side of the road. Always.
That’s the thing about fantasy and fantasizing… I’m recognizing a generation of men raised on this sort of fiction and hoping desperately to become what they see. They want to be John Wick. They isn’t going to end well for any of us.
Some Thoughts:
- Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Punch the orphan macaque is outgrowing his plushie and making friends” This is one of the most popular stories in the world right now. It’s cute.. and wild.