There was good reason to look forward to “A Working Man,” as it reunites Jason Statham with director David Ayer immediately after the pair had made the action star’s best movie in years, 2024’s “The Beekeeper.” Statham is dependably entertaining and Ayer has made some genuinely good films, including the nightmarishly tense “End of Watch.” Perhaps one day the director’s cut of “Suicide Squad” will rescue that film’s reputation.

But while “Beekeeper” was unhinged fun, eliciting cheers at Statham’s character’s creative ways of dispatching baddies, “Working Man” has different aims. And is, alas, significantly less fun.

It’s based on the Levon Cade novel series by veteran Batman and Punisher comics writer Chuck Dixon (the book in question is actually titled “Levon’s Trade: A Vigilante Justice Thriller”). The adaptation, by Statham’s “Expendables” costar and scripter Sylvester Stallone (who also wrote Statham’s “Homefront”) and Ayer,...