One wants justice, the other wants revenge.
After his partner Tom Wynne and family are killed apparently by the infamous and elusive assassin Rogue, FBI agent Jack Crawford becomes obsessed with revenge as his world unravels into a vortex of guilt and betrayal. Rogue eventually resurfaces to settle a score of his own, setting off a bloody crime war between Asian mob rivals Chang of the Triad's and Yakuza boss Shiro. When Jack and Rogue finally come face to face, the ultimate truth of their pasts will be revealed.
Genre(s): Action, Crime, Thriller
Runtime: 103 minutes
Rating: 6.2/10 (25,160 votes)
Release Date: 24 August 2007
Country: USA
Languages: English, Mandarin, Japanese, Cantonese
Company: Current Entertainment
Sound: DTS, SDDS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for sequences of strong bloody violence, sexuality/nudity and language.
Director(s): Philip G. Atwell
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Producer(s):
Peter Block - executive producer
Steve Chasman - producer
Stephanie Denton - co-producer
Mike Elliott - executive producer
Ogden Gavanski - service producer
Joseph P. Genier - co-producer
Michael Paseornek - executive producer
Christopher Petzel - producer
John Sacchi - executive producer
Jim Thompson - producer
Writer(s):
Lee Anthony Smith - (written by) &
Gregory J. Bradley - (written by)
Cast:
Jet Li - Rogue
Jason Statham - Crawford
John Lone - Chang
Devon Aoki - Kira
Luis Guzmán - Benny (as Luis Guzman)
Saul Rubinek - Dr. Sherman
Ryo Ishibashi - Shiro
Sung Kang - Goi
Mathew St. Patrick - Wick
Nadine Velazquez - Maria
Music: Brian Tyler
Peter Block - executive producer
Steve Chasman - producer
Stephanie Denton - co-producer
Mike Elliott - executive producer
Ogden Gavanski - service producer
Joseph P. Genier - co-producer
Michael Paseornek - executive producer
Christopher Petzel - producer
John Sacchi - executive producer
Jim Thompson - producer
Writer(s):
Lee Anthony Smith - (written by) &
Gregory J. Bradley - (written by)
Cast:
Jet Li - Rogue
Jason Statham - Crawford
John Lone - Chang
Devon Aoki - Kira
Luis Guzmán - Benny (as Luis Guzman)
Saul Rubinek - Dr. Sherman
Ryo Ishibashi - Shiro
Sung Kang - Goi
Mathew St. Patrick - Wick
Nadine Velazquez - Maria
Music: Brian Tyler
Posted on: October 16, 2008
June 25th, 2008
What begins as a typical 'chop-suey' actioner, soon turns out to beanything but. This script for this type of genre is surprisingly smart,and you'll constantly be surprised at the many twists and turns thatdevelop.
As the cop who's trying to exact revenge for his partner's murder,Jason Statham brings his typical macho demeanor to the role as he triesto find Rogue. But as the assassin, Rogue, who's in Los Angeles workingfor both the Triads and the opposing Yakuza, it's Jet Li who displays asurprisingly effective performance. You never know what's going on inhis head, but the chilled stares and menacing eyes interspersed withtaunting glances will keep you intrigued as to what exactly his aim is.
The action is suitably fast and furious, with the two most memorablefight scenes both involving Jet Li's character. So remember, this ismore than a typical martial-arts movie. It has an ending that will (toexcuse the pun), 'knock you down'.
August 19th, 2008
Hey, if you're interested in seeing a mostly-violent flick with a bigbody count, gratuitous in nature half the time, and a lot of hostility,anger, betrayal, a big twist near the end and tons of testosterone,then this movie is for you. If you want a quiet, low-key thriller, skipthis one: this is somewhat brainless blood-and-guts, slice 'n dice. Inother words: know what you're going to get here.
We get many, many gunshots to head., long range to up-close-andpersonal, swords into mouths and through back of head and through justabout any other body part, a car chase, motorcycle chases, a few barebreasts and a bunch of attention-grabbing scenes of brutality, whichdefinitely outnumber the quieter scenes.
Jason Statham seems to be the new macho man of the day, playing thiskind of role in numerous films the past few years. Jet Li…..well, youknow him. Statham versus Li? Yes, but not really. The two are only inthe same scene twice, once for a couple of minutes of Jason givingthreats and Jet standing there passively, and then in the finale fightscene. The latter, unlike most of these action films of today, is notoverdone and go on and on. It's just about the right length.
The best part of this ultra-violent movie dealing with rival Asiangangs and FBI agent (s) in the middle in the BIG twist near the end ofthe film. At least it makes this a little more than a brainless actionmovie. I think it's kind of cool, although don't try to analyze it forcredibility.
While a number of reviewers here weren't happy that the two big starsweren't on the screen at the same time for long, my choice forunder-played actor is Luis Guzman, who is always very interesting butdidn't have many lines here. I'd like to have seen his part a lotbigger, and I would have liked to see Statham tone it tone and sound alittle more intelligent in his role. In real life, FBI agents have alot more class.
Having said that, I still enjoyed the film because I knew in advancewhat it was, that it wasn't Li's best effort nor Statham's but itsufficed for a 100-minute diversion. I was looking for action…and Igot it! I also recommend this for those who have HDTV and a Blu-Raydisc player. This is a very slick-looking film on Blu-Ray.
Just don't bring the kiddies or grandma into the living room to watchthis!
November 5th, 2008
War, indeed, what is it good for? In the case of this particular film,zilch. War is a tumbling, tumbling mess of fast edits and twisting,turning needlessly complicated betrayals and plot realisations designedto keep the audience guessing as to who to trust and who not to. War isneedlessly violent when it isn't mind numbingly uninteresting as itcomatoses its way through testosterone fuelled scenes that pack thescreen with 'gangsters' and law enforcers but never actually have themdo anything. Then I read that director Philip G. Atwell has made many-amusic videos in the past and the realisation of War is that it is abasic, basic genre picture placed in the hands of someone with thisparticular CV.
The abruptly named War, abruptly named and just as abruptly forgotten,sees Jason Statham's Agent Jack Crawford (no bearing to the Lecterfilms' Jack Crawford) go on a rage fuelled mission to avenge the deathof one of his partners during the raid that takes place very early onin the film. It's a basic set up but films such as Road to Perdition,Payback and Gladiator have brought the revenge arc away from stuff likeDeath Wish plus-sequels and perhaps into a more respectable realm. Waris one of the revenge films from recent years that tries to shove itall way back down into the doldrums.
So where does the film go wrong after the set up? Well, bizarrely AgentCrawford is given the choice by his wife early on to either ignore herand their child completely thus risk falling out with them to go onthis vendetta or to stay with them and avoid the risk of Rouge (Jet Li,apparently), the killer of his partner plus family, killing Crawford'sown family. Ingeniously, Jack chooses to go on the vendetta anyway,something that actually comes across as a pointless exercise whencertain things are revealed. It's here that I ask 'would it have beenbetter if it were Crawford's family that had died during the point ofattack?' This way, we would've had more of a connection with Crawfordand his actions might actually have been more meaningful.
So Jack goes on this revenge mission in the fashion only Jason Stathamcan, that sort of grunting complete with an array of nasty facialexpressions as he beats people up and sticks guns in their faces. Themission is sporadic and is slightly more uninteresting than it isgeneric. We get to spend quite a bit of time with some rival Yakuza(that's the Japanese) and Triad (they're the Chinese) gangs as theystruggle with their turf wars but it just feels like a distraction.Thrown in amongst all this is Luis Guzmán's character named Benny, somesort of illegal boxing ring runner who Jack goes to early on for aminute bit of help. I forget where Guzmán ranked in the opening creditsbut he's billed fifth highest here on IMDb despite being in the filmfor all of about one minute.
So we have a cocktail of different people from different backgroundsand ethnicities. America, Japan, China and Mexico all feature and thecast ranges between the four as well as England given where JasonStatham is from. But what happens isn't an interesting or clever taleor comment to do with the multiple ethnicities that inhabit Americatoday; nor is it a comment or a piece on the dangers that face theAmerican law what with the influx of smuggling and crime theserespective ethnicities may bring to the superpower that is the U.S.A.No, it's a disappointing and random exercise in demonisation and pettystereotyping the film knows its young and passive audience will be ableto map onto and recognise. I suppose this is why I enjoyed Paul Haggis'Crash from a few years ago; a film that takes the crime genre to adegree and sets it in America but with the multicultural element usedto good effect rather than like this.
In-between all the running and shooting and whatever else there was,Jet Li's Rouge will spout some meaningless clap trap about '…at everymoment in the world, things change' and other such quips that sodesperately want to bring humanity to the character and film but comeacross as forced and quite silly. But the film cannot mask its ownfailures and it cannot mask the fact it feels like a rushed effort; anexercise in formula as it conforms to exactly what its target audiencewill lap up. For a film to present its only Mexican character as an aidthat can further the white lead's mission of revenge is disappointingas is a scene nearer the end when a big, African-American law enforcerwill sacrifice his own life by jumping in-front of said white malelead, thus taking a bullet and dying as a result. But there is norecognition of it and Crawford hardly flinches after it happens, infact he doesn't flinch that much in general.
War really is a tired effort; a daft and uninspiring attempt that goeson for too long and lacks real interest. Perhaps the film might'veworked had Crawford's family been killed at the beginning but then thefilm wouldn't be able to unleash a twist on us; perhaps a slower paceas well as some sort of clarity added to most of the scenes would'veworked and maybe if you're going to include people of multipleethnicities and races, it might be a good idea to give everyone a faircrack rather than purely your Chinese co-lead actor who does all thekung-fu we expect him to do anyway, shame on most people involved.
November 6th, 2008
When I heard about 'Rogue Assassin' (or 'War' as it was called in thosedistant parts of the world that aren't Australia) I was promisednonstop action, car chases, boobs, Jet Li kicking a million arses(including Jason Stathams') and, best of all, ninjas! Now, while 'War'does technically have all these things, there are a few key areas whereit doesn't quite live up to the hype.
Yes, there are car chases. Or at least, there's one car chase. Thereare other bits with cool cars driving around, but only one actualchase. There's also a motorbike chase. That's two chases. Hardly"nonstop".
There are also boobs. But like the chases there are only two of themand they're not on the screen for all that long.
Jet Li is in it. However, he barely used any martial arts (which iskinda disappointing since martial arts are what he's good at). Usuallyhe just strode along and shot people in the face. He does have a fightwith Jason Statham at the end, and I suppose it was an OK fightoverall, but I was kinda hoping for more flying kicks and stuff.
Now, ninjas! They couldn't possibly suck, could they? Because ninjasare awesome, right? Well, as a general rule that is true, but theseninjas weren't very ninjarey at all. They didn't leap from spire tospire on an Anglican cathedral or even use a flash bomb to make a hastyescape. They just got in to a sword fight with Jet Li and died.
And at the end is a really big twist. "You bastard!" you say, "You'renot supposed to tell me there's a twist!" Now, normally that would betrue, but this twist is so lame that I could not in good conscienceleave you unwarned. You'll either laugh or cry, it's that bad.
I think the main problem with 'War' is that it starred Jet Li, and thenbarely gave him a chance to show everyone what he was made of. Whichmakes about as much sense as getting Luciano Paverotti to perform at aconcert and then only letting him hum the tune.
Then there's the hype talking up how very 'male' this film is. Becauseof this, I was going in expecting 'Duke Nukem: The Movie'. And while'War' is a solid enough action film, it's not all _that_ macho.
So if you're after a whiz-bang action film you probably will like'War', just don't believe the hype.
August 15th, 2010
it is wonderfull