Sporting the most matter-of-fact title since Snakes on a Plane, the new thriller Man on a Ledge delivers exactly what it promises. That is, admittedly, a low bar to clear.

The man in question climbs onto that ledge, of the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, within the film’s first few minutes. His reasons for doing so are revealed in a series of flashbacks in which we learn that he’s an former cop named Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) who was sent to prison for stealing an absurdly large diamond from powerful real estate developer David Englander (Ed Harris, hamming it up like a pro).

Cassidy was able to escape his guards while on temporary leave to attend his father’s funeral, and it becomes apparent early on that he’s on the ledge not to jump to his death but because he has a plan to prove that he was wrongly convicted.

As TV news crews, an NYPD contingent, and a crowd of onlookers surround the building to watch what they believe is a suicide in progress, police negotiator Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) is called in to talk this mystery man — Cassidy take pains to conceal his identity — back into the building.

Meanwhile, Nick’s brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and Joey’s girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez, who seems to have been hired for the part primarily to display her physical assets) are breaking into a building across the street to reach a safe belonging to Englander. It doesn’t take long to guess what they’re after.

Once Mercer discovers who Cassidy is, he urges her to look into the ring of corrupt cops he holds responsible for framing him. She finds there’s some truth to Cassidy’s claims and begins to suspect that he may be innocent. It doesn’t take long to guess where their relationship is heading.

Anyone drawn to see this movie based on the title will want to know whether, and how exactly, the man ends up coming off of the ledge. I dare not include that particular spoiler, except to say that I wasn’t disappointed by the action-heavy final act.

No, Joey and Angie making their way past supposedly high-tech security systems never seems believable. Yes, the movie is hurt when the vowels of Sam Worthington’s native Australian accent bleed through during some of his impassioned pleas. And, no, you won’t be able to stand Kyra Sedgwick here (as TV reporter Suzie Morales) anymore than you can stand to watch that cop show of hers on TNT.

But Man on a Ledge is a perfectly serviceable little movie, the sort you stumble across on television some lazy, rainy weekend afternoon and don’t bother changing the channel because you don’t feel like searching for something better to stream off Netflix.