Filmmaker Guy Ritchie helped Jason Statham become the action hero everyone knows today in the 1990s. Now the British duo is getting back together for their own new film. “Cash Truck” is bloody, booming – and puristic.
Cologne – men in their mid-50s who share a common past like to look back on that time. “Do you still remember then?” It says then.
“When we really let it rip?” It is not exactly known what director Guy Ritchie (52) discussed with his old friend, the actor Jason Statham (53), when he told him about his new film “Cash Truck” tried to convince. But what you can safely say: The two mid-fifties decided to let it rip again. And really.
No frills and no humor
“Cash Truck” has become one of those films that need the big cinema hall, even in the corona pandemic. That is why some hopes are now resting on him. The action is tough, straightforward and fast, the soundtrack powerful. And for Ritchie and Statham, in a way, it’s a return to pre-pandemic times. In 1998 the two Brits made their joint breakthrough with the rough gangster comedy “Bube, Dame, König, grAS” and then worked together again and again. In 2005, however, the professional paths parted.
Ornate, black-humored elements, as we know them from earlier collaborations between the two, are not found in the new work. Statham, who has now earned a reputation as a tough and sometimes one-dimensional action bully (“The Expendables”), is a taciturn, closed loner here too. He’s hired for a money delivery company that drives hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles every week.
On one of his first missions, the situation escalates and the transporter is attacked by gangsters. While his colleague is shivering in panic, “H”, as Statham’s character is simply called, stay cool as a polar night. Targeted and precise, he single-handedly wipes out the gang of robbers – which makes him an almost mystical figure in the company. He had only just passed the aptitude test in shooting. “H” obviously has a few secrets.
Ritchie works with time leaps to unroll the story of “H”. It quickly becomes clear: “Cash Truck” is not only a thriller, but also a revenge film and a little heist movie, as it is about well-balanced plans how to rob the heavy vans. So much can be revealed: “H” itself is not about the money. He has a personal, open account.
Images of masculinity
The template comes from France and is more than 15 years old (“Cash Truck – Death Drives With”, 2004). Ritchie makes it his film by imposing his very typical, downright masculine staging on the whole thing. In the subtext it is always about images of masculinity, about fathers, about soldiers. There are almost no women. The British influence is also noticeable. The film is set in LA – but the metropolis appears as foggy as an English port city.
There may be people who hoped for more innovation from the return of the Ritchie / Statham duo. Others will be happy that a logical, consistent story is finally being told in the cinema, which still rattles a lot. “Cash Truck” is not a dull, cobbled together action blockbuster.
By the way, there are actually some clues as to how Ritchie and Statham got back together. In the accompanying press material, the director can be quoted as saying that he “simply called his star and only gave him a brief outline of the story”. “Neither of us gave it much thought. We liked the basic idea and we were both free at the time. ”It can be that simple in your mid-50s.
Cash Truck, GB / USA 2021, 119 min., FSK 16+, by Guy Ritchie, with Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Josh Hartnett, Scott Eastwood dpa
