War
by Philip G. Atwell
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Devon Aoki, Jason Statham, Jet Li, John Lone, Nadine VelazquezDirector: Philip G. Atwell
Producer: Christopher Petzel
Producer: Jim Thompson
Producer: John Sacchi
Producer: Joseph P. Genier
Producer: Michael Paseornek
Writer: Gregory J. Bradley
Writer: Lee Anthony Smith
Audio: English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: NTSC
Running Time: 103 minutes
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Movie Reviews of War
Movie Review: War? More Like A Minor Squabble
Summary: 2 Stars
It's official: I used to think that "Cradle 2 the Grave" was the worst western movie that Jet Li had ever done, but as of today, I know that this is not the case. Rarely has such a unique and promising premise been squandered as badly as director Philip Atwell did when he had Jet Li and Jason Statham in the same movie and did next to nothing with them; what could have been an action lover's wet dream was turned into a toothless talkfest with minimal action and endless quick-cut editing that's to tick off even the most devote follower of Michael Bay.
The plot starts off fairly straight-forward - FBI agent Jack Crawford (Statham, "The Transporter" trilogy) seeks revenge on a mysterious assassin known as Rogue (Li, "Hero") amidst an Asian mafia rivalry-turned-war run by the Triad leader Chang (John Lone, "The Last Emperor") and Yakuza boss Shiro (Ryo Ishibashi, "The Grudge") - but eventually becomes quite convoluted, since every other scene becomes an instance of betrayal and leaves you really wondering who is on whose side and why. To the writers' credit, there is an unexpected twist at the end concerning Rogue's identity that is surprisingly good and very nearly enough to make up for the rest of the plot's wannabe-smart tomfoolery...but not quite. Still, if you're going to remember anything about the movie, that'll be it.
Action? - what action? With the legendary Corey Yuen acting as fight choreographer, I was expecting his usual explosion of wireworked excitement, but I now think that he spent most of his time on the set napping: amidst some lackluster shootouts that any fool could've shot, there are only a handful of kung fu scenes that are worth waking up for. The better of these include Li in a short but cool hand-to-hand fight with a Yakuza henchmen (I think it's Don Lew) and a swordfight against Ishibashi that's pretty good even though it's entirely grounded. Statham has one short, mandatory beat-`em-up against a group of mob thugs before he fights Li in the last five minutes of the movie. Without exaggeration, their fight is less than a minute long and features next to no martial arts - it's just the two of them pushing eachother against walls and through windows. I could go on for hours about the injustice of finally getting two top-tier action heroes into the same fight and seeing them do only this, but since it won't do any good, let me leave it at this: Li didn't become a national wushu champion so he could get into shoving matches with other martial artists.
The acting is decent, as action flicks go, but nobody from Li to Statham and Lone to Ishibashi shines at all. Luis Guzman ("Boogie Nights"), Sung Kang ("Fast & Furious"), Nadine Velazquez ("My Name is Earl"), and Matthew St. Patrick ("Six Feet Under") have forgettable supporting parts, and even though Devon Aoki rocked "Sin City" by pretending to know how to fight, she gets in on none of the action.
At the end of the 103 minutes of "War", you'll have seen about half-a-dozen fights of which five do not top ninety seconds in duration, about three or four meh-level car chases, and a lot of shouting from Mr. Statham, but nothing even reminiscent of the large-scale conflict the title refers to. I'm very tempted to give this movie a one-star rating simply because it botched one of action cinema's dream match-ups so very badly, but in light of a handful of good parts, I can't really go through with it. Two stars is generous for a movie I never want to see again in my life, so... Unless you're expecting something disappointing to begin with and are okay with that, don't bother with this one.
Summary of War
Pitting Hong Kong legend Jet Li against UK tough guy Jason Statham seems like a surefire way to generate on-screen heat, and action fans will get a good deal of just that from the action-heavy War. Unfortunately, they also have to slog through a clich?d-riddled story about world-weary FBI agent Statham, who's gunning for Li, the master assassin that killed his partner years before, and who's currently neck-deep in a turf war between yakuza and triad gangs. Philip G. Atwell's style-over-substance direction doesn't help matters either, though he does have a way with shootouts and other combative set pieces. As for Li and Statham, their scenes together are surprisingly limited; there's also a twist in the film's final third that begs for serious suspension of disbelief. In short, those that found the duo's last movie team-up (2001's The One) lacking won't find much here to supplant that memory. The DVD includes three commentary tracks: one by Atwell, one by screenwriters Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley (it's the liveliest of the lot) and an audio trivia track that delves deep into the film's production, which is also covered in detail by nine separate featurettes. A gag reel and deleted/extended scenes round out the supplemental features. -- Paul GaitaAction & Adventure DVD Video
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