War

August 26, 2007

Rated: R Runtime: 91 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

War makes for the interesting pairing of Jason Statham and Jet Li. Statham has had some of the most unique fight sequences of the last few years in movies like The Transporter. And Jet Li is probably the most reoognizable pure martial arts star working with Jackie Chan doing mostly comedy and guys like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal fading into oblivion rapidly. So how does this combination work out?

War Well, the movie puts them on opposite sides. Jet Li plays a highly skilled and mysterious assassin named Rogue who works for the Japanese yakuza. Statham is an FBI agent, named Crawford, in San Francisco specializing in Asian organized crime operations in the area. So what do you do in these type of movies to really make these guys arch enemies? You have Rogue kill Crawford’s partner of course!

The movie has all of the ingredients. There’s any type of action you want scattered through out including gun fights, sword play and of course some martial arts. We also get a couple of good chase sequences in San Francisco, though we would’ve loved to see a modern chase down one of the hill sides with a lot of hang time. They merely teased us with that part. However, they didn’t tease us with nudity. You wont see much of Devon Aoki, but there are classic scenes featuring a yakuza entertainment establishment that turned our yellow fever into yellow plague.

But have you ever had someone who is a really good cook give you a recipe for one of your favorite dishes and then tried to cook it yourself only to find it’s a little bland or just doesn’t quite meet expectations? Well, that’s what happens with this movie. All the pieces are there. We want to like it. But at the end of the movie, I’m certainly not thinking I want to see it again, and I doubt I’ll even buy the DVD. It somehow just doesn’t click.

We give War 3 stars. It’s not that it’s a bad movie, it just didn’t quite meet the expectations we had for a Jet Li and Jason Statham showdown. What should’ve been an instant contender for slobber knocker of the year with lots of creative choreography was just an ok fight. Not bad, but not really memorable or special in anyway. If you’re a fan of Statham, Li or both, this is worth a DVD rental at least, but we’re going to stop well short of calling it a must-see otherwise.

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Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Jason Statham, Jet Li, R, Theatrical, devon aoki, luis guzman, nicholas elia