Martial arts superstar Jet Li and Brit-kicker Jason Statham go head to head in this slick cops and robbers drama which pits the Triads and the Yazuka against the FBI in a bloody war on the streets of California. Ben Johnson discovers what is War really good for. Absolutely nothing, apparently.
War
Distributor: Lions Gate Films Format: Region 1 (NTSC) Length: 103 min. Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2.40:1 Audio: English, Japanese, Mandarin Subtitles: English, Spanish Extras: ‘The Action of War’ – 9 Behind the Scenes Vignettes; Audio Commentary with Director Philip G. Atwell; Audio Commentary with Writers Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley; ‘Scoring War’ – Featurette; Audio Trivia Track; Gag Reel; Deleted/Extended Scenes Sound: Dolby Digital Surround EX Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital Audio 2.0
Year of Release: 2007; Origin: United States; Studio: Current Entertainment, Fierce Entertainment, Lions Gate Films, Mosaic Media Group
Director: Philip G. Atwell; Producer: Steve Chasman, Christopher Petzel, Jim Thompson; Script: Lee Anthony Smith, Gregory J. Bradley; Action Director: Corey Yuen Kwai; Cast Jet Li Lian-jie, Jason Statham, John Lone, Devon Aoki, Luis Guzman, Saul Rubinek.
Alternative Titles:Rogue (working title)
Trailer: Click below to view the trailer for War
Review
California is in lockdown and for once it’s got nothing to do with forest fires. Carnage ensues when both the Yakuza and the Triads cross sabers in a bitter feud which boils out from under the trendy nightclubs of San Francisco to Mexico, Japan and back again. Rogue (Jet Li) and Crawford (Jason Statham) are the two forces stirring up some god awful trouble. Rogue is a silent, ruthless assassin who’s so damn hard he straps explosives to rottweilers and even has his own signature titanium bullets (for a marksman who deals in stealth and espionage, this is surely a slightly clumsy omission on his part). Crawford is a ballsy, hotheaded FBI agent who is trying to quit smoking but still talks like Bruce Willis with a forty-a-day habit (he even talks to his kids in that same menacing voice, which makes everything he says sound like he’s asking for a fight). Both are completely incomprehensible and rely more on their ammunition to do the talking, yet despite such a remarkable handicap they both manage to disrupt the flow of cross cultural harmony shared between both the Japanese and Chinese communities to such an extent that rich business bastards get comeuppanced and a Samurai warlord jets in from Tokyo to meet his maker.
But the all-Asian war is but a backdrop to the revenge tale at the centre of this noisy action film. Crawford’s partner was slashed and burnt three years previously by the mysterious Rogue and the cop is now in hot pursuit on a personal quest for vengeance, using labourious gun fights, car chases and the odd slice of violent kung fu chopping. There is also some story involving the shipment of ancient Ming treasures which both tribes want a piece of, only for the antiques to switch hands so many times that you lose track of who is after them and why.
Few double headers are quite so appealing to hormonal teenagers as the promise of both Jet Li and Jason Statham in a grueling kick fest, and given the caliber of both actor’s past filmic expressions then you would be right to assume that the IQ level on this particular outing is set particularly low. This film follows Li’s short lived ‘retirement’ from kung fu cinema, which he later rephrased to a retirement from ‘traditional’ kung fu cinema, which should give him more time to concentrate on this sort of turd. It’s not entirely Li’s fault, however, as this money spinner should satisfy all available markets with more than enough booty and head kicking, even if die hard fans should have been serviced with a bit more of the two actors going toe to toe. Half the time Li looks completely disinterested and disturbingly bored, like he’s waiting for porridge to cook, and the fact that we are supposed to believe that someone who has made a living portraying ancient China’s most respected kung fu heroes could suddenly start shooting kids in the face is perhaps a poetic stretch too far. You’re just never completely convinced that someone this small and indiscernible could possibly be capable of such mindless atrocities. It didn’t work for Li in Lethal Weapon 4 and it doesn’t work here.
Jason Statham is also someone who has managed to stretch out a questionable Hollywood career by using the Jet Li technique of ‘non-acting’, by brooding about in cocksure happy slapping nonsense like Crank and The Transporter. Those films are about as low brow as you can get, and Statham appears to have become Hollywood’s latest cockney test pilot for cliché ridden slug fests which plant their brains firmly in the seat of their pants. And thank God, as Statham seems to be the only finely tuned post-80s muscle head left to lead Hollywood’s resurgence in chauvinistic cinema now that Stallone’s full of happy pills and Arnie’s the king of the world. This makes Statham a fine choice for this film, which revels so bravely in the charms of its silent stars despite the fact that neither of them can particularly act and, thanks to some really bad script writing, appear utterly charmless. Fans of both actors will no doubt be taken in by some flashy photography and chic sense of style, but Li can do a lot better than this rudimentary fodder, even if Statham can’t. To the film’s credit, there is a good twist at the end and feminists everywhere will have a field day with it.
Few double headers are quite so appealing to hormonal teenagers as the promise of both Jet Li and Jason Statham in a grueling kick fest, and given the caliber of both actor’s past filmic expressions then you would be right to assume that the IQ level on this particular outing is set particularly low. This film follows Li’s short lived ‘retirement’ from kung fu cinema, which he later rephrased to a retirement from ‘traditional’ kung fu cinema, which should give him more time to concentrate on this sort of turd. It’s not entirely Li’s fault, however, as this money spinner should satisfy all available markets with more than enough booty and head kicking, even if die hard fans should have been serviced with a bit more of the two actors going toe to toe. Half the time Li looks completely disinterested and disturbingly bored, like he’s waiting for porridge to cook, and the fact that we are supposed to believe that someone who has made a living portraying ancient China’s most respected kung fu heroes could suddenly start shooting kids in the face is perhaps a poetic stretch too far. You’re just never completely convinced that someone this small and indiscernible could possibly be capable of such mindless atrocities. It didn’t work for Li in Lethal Weapon 4 and it doesn’t work here. 
(0 vote)
