How do you get two of the greatest kick-ass-action-male-stars of the century and end up with a kind-of-entertaining flick instead of the greatest action movie ever made?!
Good but not great, it could've been SO MUCH better. Definitely.
Fucking excellent - Jet is the best chingy for martial arts - though the english is not the best - and Jasey is fucking great and with a good twist at the ending - for once. Also good action - guts, martial arts sequences, violence and not much tit and butt though alas, but then, it isnt porn is it-lmfao! Well worth watching!I command it.
This is one of those films that is so middle of the road that it'll be tough to review. I didn't hate the film, but I didn't particularly like it either. It was mildly diverting in an non-insulting manner, but also completely forgettable. Which makes it tough to write about because I didn't form a lot of opinions while I was watching it.
Mostly War wasn't the film I was expecting. From the trailers it looked like a non-stop action film, full of kung-fu and gun fights. Which there are elements of, but not as much as I hoped for. With Jason Statham, the star of the Transporter and Jet Li, one of the greatest kung-fu stars ever, and a title like War, I was expecting 90 minutes of over-the-top battles. But there's a lot of story-development, which isn't usually a bad thing, but honestly there's too much for a film of this type. I don't want to watch Statham and Li talk out their problems.
Statham plays a rogue FBI agent, is there any other kind in these films? Who's after the master-assassin, Jet Li, who killed his partner at the beginning of the film. The funny thing is that Li starts to play the Yakuzas against the Triads, two mafia clans, who Statham has been trying to take down on his own. He begins to question what's really going on, while also trying to catch Li. They're both so busy with the mafia battles, that they don't get a chance to face off until the final scene of the film. Which is what's to be expected, but I thought there would be some warm up fights as well.
I actually didn't see the final twist coming, which was done pretty well, but the film wasn't entertaining enough up to that point to keep my full attention, so that I honestly didn't care by the end. If they're going to sell a film as an all-out-action film, they better be able to back it up. But the film, while having a couple of decently done scenes, has too much story and talking, that isn't done well enough to care about. They hardly have Jet Li do any kung-fu fighting, he uses his guns far more than his fists. I was hoping for a lot more battles between Statham and Li, their final fight scene is fun, but it takes far too long to get there. War is not bad, not good, a completely forgettable action flick without enough action.
A dumb Jaso Statham actioner without the dumb corny fun. In fact it tries to make itself needlessly complicated with daft twists to make people think "OOOOOH clever" but it is simply annoying. The action is good, the editing is fast without much focus, simply cutting to images accompanied by loud noises. Li acts with his fists and the whole seriousness just makes it less fun. A nice sword fight, an okay car chase and the like will certainly satisfy those wanting a Statham/Li film but for those who are unsure it is pretty pointless.
This is a pretty good action film featuring an assassin who seems to be playing off the Triads and Yukuza against each other. There is plenty of action, car chase, shootouts, sword fights and quite brutal to. Maybe some of the fight scenes could have been a bit better or more of them but overall this is a quality film worth checking out.
run of the mill action with jet li. it's no romeo must die or cradle to the grave. the story is so simple and silly that by the time the twist turns up you're not at all interested in it. on the other hand the last 45 minutes is a non-stop action packed thrill-ride. watch it for the excellent fight scenes and car chase. switch your mind off when it comes to the poor story though!
Good set up, good premise, disappointing movie. Plot is OK, action is OK. The ending of this movie stinks! Three stars is a gift based on the "stars" in this flick.
I went into this one with great expectations, which is partly why I have to tear this movie a new one. Statham and Li was all I needed to hear (they last met in 'The One'). Sadly the story is overly convoluted and rather boring, the twist ending is totally ridiculous and unbelievable and the dialogue is fairly laughable. Saying that, there are some awesome action scenes, gunplay, swordplay and matial arts. The perfect movie for a shallow, patient person. Could have been great.
Again the Li - Statham duo although this time its not the same. Li without marshal-arts is just plain wrong! Weak, even if the end helps it earn a point more.
God cop bad cop....or is it? After "Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever" I vowed to never again watch a movie where two action stars face off....but my brother wanted to watch this so here we are. Jet Li kicks alot of ass in this, and Jason Statham has alot of...(read more) tough talk, and at the end theres a twist. Rza and Dr. Dre do the soundtrack which is the most novel aspect of this movie. Some decent action in a way convuluted storyline, that was a little more interesting then most. I was sat down and this movie put on in front of me, if your an action fan or comfortable vegging out in front of a mediocre one, "War" is time waster with many explosions
I was expecting The One part 2(ish), but it was nowhere near as entertaining as I thought it would be. There was simply not enough action as I hoped there would be. Though character development was good and some of the action was pretty impressive, plus the twist at the end was good and unpredictable, but overall this movie didn't stand out with its action and its story. That is pretty much all.
A little bit hard to keep up with what is happening at times , too much action, strange twist at the end, left me having to try and explain it to my mother lol!
I'm giving this film two and a half stars based on action and the plot twist at the end and that's it! I thought this would be better then it was but I was greatly disappointed. It didn't have much action and the action it had was nothing special. You would think that a movie with Li and Statham would have the best action sequences but you would be wrong in this case. The acting was bad as well. The plot twist at the end saved the movie though cause you don't see it coming. Well, that alone couldn't save it but without the plot twist and just bad acting and a little action it would have been a one and a half star instead of two and a half.
The first ridiculous thing about War is the unnecessary title change it undergoes for some parts of the world, naming itself after Jet Li's assassin character Rogue. Billed as "The Ultimately Martial Arts Duel of the Year", the person who wrote that blurb for War obviously hasn't seen many films, or martial arts ones for that matter, or is plain lying through the teeth. You'd half expect that pairing two action stars against one another will instantly mean box office success by pulling in fans of both Jet Li and Jason Statham (I'm one of them), but it's a downright insult as you don't see any punches pulled between the two for 99% of the time.
Jason Statham actually starred opposite Jet Li in a film called The One back in 2001, in which Carla Gugino also starred and where Li had no decent cinematic opponent to spar with, and had to do so with himself, assisted by CGI. With films like The Transporter and Crank becoming instant guilty pleasures (read: just Statham kicking up a storm without a reasonable story to boot), I'd actually come to enjoy his work choreographed by Corey Yuen (who also does the action choreography here), together with other ensemble films he starred in, like The Italian Job and Snatch, amongst others. It's no doubt I'm a fan, but in War, all he had to show off his fighting chops, was a sequence in a omnipresent teahouse.
But Jet Li fared no better too. His Hollywood foray had been more misses than hits, either playing assassins or cops like in Kiss of the Dragon, or be stuck in roles that require little dialogue and only to look bad-ass, like in Lethal Weapon 4, and Cradle 2 the Grave. As a sort of compensation, there was the Luc Besson-written flick Danny the Dog in 2005, which was surprisingly good. Nonetheless he goes back to a story on warring factions again à la Romeo Must Die, but this time, it's not between boyz in the hood, but putting Japanese Yakuzas and Hong Kong Triads in the streets of San Francisco.
As I mentioned earlier, there's nothing related to martial arts here. Everything is guns, guns and more guns, with a complimentary sword fight put in, but not between the touted leads. The action sequences, from fights to chases to stunts all looked rather tired and rehashed, with absolutely nothing that will make you go "wow, that's nothing I've seen before". Statham and Li share no more than five minutes together in the same scene, and only at best a minute bashing each other up, in the dark, in a narrow dock warehouse, before launching into more verbal mumbo jumbo.
Everything here is a caricature, and not even a clichéd revelation saved the film, when it had expected to, except to give some runway to a possible sequel. War reeks of plain laziness, and plays out like a cartoon. In trying to be sophisticated, having to label locales with "The Triad Warehouse", or "The Yakuza Lair" was just plain hilarious, unintentionally of course. The number of supporting caricatures, some recognizable Asian actors, all fall into the realm of predictability, and the villains are all too smug and too boring. You have HK actor Mark Cheng lending his charisma but becoming a laughing stock, John Lone demonstrating he's still very much being typecast in Hollywood roles and Devon Aoki continuing to be that flower vase who can't seem go beyond the "Asian chick" stereotype.
Everything's pure flash with zero substance. Even in trying to be a little sophisticated in its plot, it decided to allow some plot loopholes to go through an exercise of the implausible, and put in some major character motivation error. But then again, we're talking about cartoony caricatures here, so that probably won't matter. It became a victim of its own star casting - you don't know who you want as the bad guy, and as a result, becomes a below par mediocre, generic action film that you can stick some other monkeys in and still work. No wonder Jet Li warned to keep expectations low for this film.
War was a nice suprise for me. I wasn't expecting more than a straight action film...especially starring Lee and Statham. Of course the action was there and descent. What I didn't expect was a decent plot that has an little twist at the end. It's not going to go down as a great movie, but it is one that should entertain you.
Wow I have heard more bad stuff about this Movie. A Movie with great Action Stars. How can something go wrong. But maybe one Movie is not inough for 2 Execellent Actors. I m gonna watch it someday. Not really in the mood for Statham these days. lol
good action film, with straithern as his reliable hard man role, as a cop hunting down jet li, a criminal, who murdered his partner, is there more to him than meets the eye, lots of great action going on wether its shoot ups or swordplay, a decent story going on as well,
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