War (Widescreen Edition)
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Movie Reviews of War (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: One of the best
Summary: 5 Stars
It was a good movie but it took me awhile to understand the Jet Li's part. I love action and there was plenty of that.Movie Review: WAR
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a great movie with lots of action. I bought it as a requested xmas gift for my husband.Movie Review: 3 ½ Stars: Not all Bad, will appeal to some....
Summary: 4 Stars
WAR (aka. ROGUE ASSASSIN, Asian title) is the 2nd movie that puts together Jason Statham and Jet Li. Remember, "The One"? I don't blame you; I barely recall the film myself. This film has a very interesting cast; two popular action stars set to collide in the big screen. With fight choreography by Corey Yuen, it looks very promising. Did it deliver on its expectations? (I've been reviewing too many Korean films of late so I thought I'd review one that I saw in theaters months ago, my draft has just been sitting in my computer)
An F.B.I. agent named Jack Crawford (Jason Statham) is obsessed in finding his partner's killer and bringing the assassin called "Rogue" (Jet Li) to justice. Rogue is a ruthless killer, apparently if the Yakuza wants someone taken care of; they send this cold and accurate assassin. After disappearing from sight for a few years, Rogue resurfaces in the San Francisco Bay Area. Apparently, he has switched sides, and is now working for the Chinese Triad headed by Chang (John Lone). Jack is so fixated in nabbing Rogue that his very presence fills him with rage. However, Rogue takes Jack's presence as very entertaining and quite amusing. It seems that Rogue has a hidden agenda...
Music video director Philip Atwell is at the helm with "War"; his experience filming music videos certainly shows in this outing. The style is pretty routine and nothing is spectacular. One thing I can say, is that most of the sequences weren't shot in San Francisco; (I live in San Francisco so I can tell) wherever it WAS filmed it was so convenient. Yakuza territory is made of Sushi bars and Triad territory is mostly, well, Chinese food places. The Asian gangsters have the usual stereotype inherent in other action films. I did find the fetish in Asian clubs quite amusing.
The last time I saw Jet Li as the antagonist was in Lethal Weapon 4; Li upstages Statham in terms of dynamic charisma, he portrays Rogue as a silent but intense presence. Statham's character seemed a bit too clichéd, and suffers too much from the same old "cop-on-the-edge" gimmick. Li plays a good anti-hero as Rogue, with his classic manipulations to set the Triad against Yakuza. The classic manipulations kind of reminded me of older films, I couldn't put my finger on it until my friend mentioned Yojimbo and Shogun Assassin. The Yakuza crime lord is played by Ryu Ishibashi (Cure) with his daughter played by hottie Devon Aoki (D.O.A.). It was obvious that Aoki is in the film for eye-candy and not much else.
Not to say that the screenplay lacked inspiration. The interesting plot twists seemed poised to turn the film into something quite good. The first twist showed some promise although it may require a large suspension of disbelief; we are expected to believe that everything is just so well executed and calculated. I almost don't want to mention the 2nd twist, because they should have stopped with the first one. The second twist made the movie seemed a bit overcooked; it seemed too forced. It called too much attention to itself to astonish without any credibility. I cannot disclose anymore information because I may end up spoiling the film a little. I really felt like the film would have ended better. (I'm curious to see if the dvd will have an alternate ending, It certainly needs one) The plot devices/twists seemed more fit in a police morality drama, but in a standard action film, the pacing seemed to hamper the film a little.
Now did the film at least actually deliver on the fight sequences? Well, there are ninjas and a decent routine swordfight. We even see Kane Kosuji in action (for a few seconds anyway). The film is pretty solid as a commercial/mainstream action movie. There is a lot of marketing devices; gang conflicts with a few effective twists and turns, a hint of nudity, some T & A, cardboard cutout characters, blood with kinetic action sequences. The film isn't so bad as long as one remembers its target audience; testosterone-laden males (like me). Action director Corey Yuen made better action scenes before, but for action junkies, it may still prove diverting.
WAR is a MIXED bag, it doesn't offer anything we haven't seen before. It has the potential to become a truly fresh and entertaining action film, but it stumbles in the standard plot devices and the routine conflicts. The action sequences are decent, but somewhat lacking in intensity and emotion. Emotion plays an important part an excellent fight scene; the direction just didn't make the effort to show such emotional impact.
There is just something missing in "War" that it wasn't as effective as I wanted it to be. I've seen a lot of great action sequences, and the ones in "War" are definitely not in the upper tier. If you're a Jet Li fan, you've definitely seen him in MUCH better fight sequences such as in my personal favorite; "Kiss of the Dragon" (modern action) or in his past Hong Kong films. To its credit, (at the very least) the fight scenes are better than the ones in "Cradle to the Grave" but only by a hair.
Maybe I've just seen too many Asian action films.
Timidly Recommended for action fanatics and a good rental for everybody else. [3 ½ stars]
Movie Review: Li and Statham go to War
Summary: 4 Stars
Even though it had been almost universally slammed by the critics, and some of Li and Statham's more rabid fanbase, upon release, I still parted with my 8 bucks-or-so to see this in the theatre when it opened, and I have to say, I came away from the screening pretty happy.
You want action, we got action. You want T&A, we got T&A. You want Jet Li as Mr Supercool Bad-a** Killing Machine... well, he is. You want Jason Statham chewing the scenery, well, he does, but not to the same degree as in Crank. The film starts out as a fairly standard "revenger," with Statham's puzzlingly Cockney Federal Agent "John Crawford" out to avenge the death of his partner at the hands of uber-assassin "Rogue," nicely underplayed by Jet Li.
The two protagonists are as different as chalk and cheese; Crawford is a no-nonsense bull-in-a-china-shop, barging in with guns blazing, squinty-eyed, furiously chewing gum, or a toothpick, whilst snarling his dialogue into the faces of the bad guys. Rogue is "Ah-nalds" Terminator in human form, cold, calculating, and relentlessly unstoppable. In fact, he's so cool and bad-a** that he has his Teflon-coated titanium ammunition hand-made in Europe, and keeps one step ahead of the law by going under the plastic surgeons knife so there're no up-to-date photos of him in the police files.
Once you have the basic set-up straight, and are just sitting there waiting for Li and Statham to have at it, the plot suddenly veers off into unexpected territory; it would appear that Rogue has his own agenda, and this involves playing the Yakuza and the Triads off, one against the other. Exactly why he's doing this is ultimately revealed with a couple of twists during the final minutes of the film that I did NOT see coming. In fact one of these is SOOOO outlandish that it's going to have you either choking on your popcorn and soda spluttering "WHAAAAT?!?!?!" and will ruin the whole movie for you, or you'll just say "cool..." and roll with it. Now, for those of us of a "certain age" I can tell you that it's not as bad as the entire season of Dallas that turned out to be a dream while Bobby was in the shower, but it's getting up there! LOL!
A nice extra for me is that the film features Ryo Ishibashi, in a prominent supporting role as Yakuza crime lord "Shiro," who you might have seen in Audition, American Yakuza, and Suicide Club amongst others. He has some good scenes including a nicely choreographed, and satisfyingly bloody, sword fight with Li. Also watch for a very funny scene where hottie Devon Aoki, as Shiro's daughter, reprimands two of his subordinates, then demands that they fetch her a salad... with dressing on the side!
Just remember folks, this is a Jet Li/Jason Statham action flick here, we're NOT talking Citizen Kane or The Godfather! Forget the hype, don't go in with unreasonable expectations, just watch Li and Statham doing their thing, and you may actually give yourself a fighting chance of enjoying this one on its own terms!
Movie Review: Much better than I expected!
Summary: 4 Stars
Jet Li plays an assassin named Rogue. He used to be an assassin for the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) but he has betrayed them and is now working for the Triads (Chinese mafia). But why did he betray them? Jason Statham plays an FBI agent who is after Rogue because Rogue killed his former partner. I don't really want to give away the story, but I will tell you there is a twist at the end that you will never see coming. The story is well done and the directing is very slick. This is not the best of Jet Li in terms of acting, but he still gives a good performance, and Jason Statham is in top form. The soundtrack is also good.
Now, to the action scenes. If you go into this expecting something like Fearless or Kiss of the Dragon, you will be extremely disappointed. Corey Yuen (the fight choreographer) was obviously restricted and was most likely told by the director to make the fights Americanized. In the case of this movie Americanized means shorter fights and more realism than Hong Kong action. If you are a fan of Hong Kong action, you know the difference. Hong Kong is known for having lots of fight scenes with really cool flashy moves. Sometimes the fights will go on for 5 minutes, sometimes even longer, and its usually unrealistic. Do fans of Hong Kong action care that it is unrealistic? Of course not, we just like to watch good long fight scenes. Unfortunately for fans of Hong Kong action, Rogue has the Americanized type of action. Shorter fights, and heavily edited. But, while the fights have a lot of editing, it is nicely done and each shot flows together perfectly. Not only do the fights focus more on realism, but there are a lot of unique stylized touches brought to it. I have to point out that there is one fight I didn't like. It is samurai sword vs samurai sword, and the choreography is horrible. But, the final fight makes up for it. A sledgehammer is used against a shovel. Need I say more? So even though the fights are not done Hong Kong style, and there is one bad fight scene, the action is still good. Good gun fights, a good car chase, and a lot of short, intense, violent fight scenes, including a decapitation. All in all, I was happy with the action. This is not a great movie, but its exciting, and it isn't the mindless popcorn flick I was expecting.
Rating- 3.5/5
The Lionsgate DVD has plenty of special features. Director's commentary, a seperate commentary from the writers, and another seperate audio track which gives a ton of information about the movie. The 3 deleted scenes are nothing special, but there are 9 featurettes that go over all of the action scenes (just the kind of special feature I was looking for :-). It breaks down the story behind the action scene, the stunts and fights, the music, and the style they were trying to create (successfully created I should add). The best part of this is watching Corey Yuen choreograph the action scenes. Even though he is a bit restricted with what kind of action he can choreograph, he shows that he is still a genius. I went into this movie with low expectations, but I ended up liking it a lot, and the special feautures compliment the movie nicely.