I saw this movie with completely lowered expectations. All I wanted was some blood, sex, shooting, stabbing, and face-kicking. And I got all of that. Jet Li stars as a nameless assassin referred to as Rogue, whose plan is overly obtuse but involves killing a lot of people. Jason Statham is some sort of FBI Agent, but his role is limited almost entirely to seeing the aftermath of Jet Li's actions and making wisecracks. When we do get to see him in action, it's unforgivably brief. Unfortunately there's also a ridiculously overly complicated plot about Triads and Yakuzas and stolen gold horses, which would be fine as a MacGuffin but it detracts way too much from the action. There are long, pointless scenes of dialog and awkwardly staged character development, such as where Rogue connects with the family of a drug kingpin. Speaking of Jet Li, he apparently left his acting abilities in his other pants, because he (and most everyone else) is painfully bad in this movie.
But that's not why you see a movie like "War" anyway. You see it for the action, which is plentiful, bloody, and highly stylized. This is the sort of movie where a character uses a sword to kill three out of four attackers, throws the sword down, and shoots the fourth. Why didn't he shoot all four? Because then we couldn't see him use the sword. You see it for the R-rated sex and nudity, which is also plentiful. And you see it for a hilarious scene where Devon Aoki, as a Yakuza princess, demands a salad from her underlings at gunpoint.
"War" is not a great movie. It's hardly even a good movie. But it's still a lot of fun, and a refreshing change from the watered down, PG-13 products that pass for action movies these days.
But that's not why you see a movie like "War" anyway. You see it for the action, which is plentiful, bloody, and highly stylized. This is the sort of movie where a character uses a sword to kill three out of four attackers, throws the sword down, and shoots the fourth. Why didn't he shoot all four? Because then we couldn't see him use the sword. You see it for the R-rated sex and nudity, which is also plentiful. And you see it for a hilarious scene where Devon Aoki, as a Yakuza princess, demands a salad from her underlings at gunpoint.
"War" is not a great movie. It's hardly even a good movie. But it's still a lot of fun, and a refreshing change from the watered down, PG-13 products that pass for action movies these days.