Love, not 'War'
Published Aug. 31, 2007
One can think of the Hollywood summer movie season as a big tub of popcorn. The best blockbusters are on the top, smothered in butter and gently sprinkled with the right amount of salt. Boy, does that taste delicious. But then you get halfway through the bowl (a.k.a. mid-July to August), and many of the kernels have gotten soggy and your stomach starts to hurt, but you paid full price, so you might as well eat it.
Then finally, the end of August rolls around and you're staring at the bottom of your bucket. Many kernels haven't popped; they are only potential delicacies that couldn't bloom into their full potential. The kernels that do lay askew on the bottom are stale, unflavored and unsatisfying. "War" is one of these metaphoric popcorn bottom-dwellers.
Jason Statham (that guy from "The Transporter" and those Guy Ritchie movies) and Jet Li (known to moviegoers as that guy who's not Jackie Chan) play adversaries in this boring attempt at an action film.
Statham plays Crawford, a CIA agent who has just lost his partner to the hands of former-agent-turned-ruthless assassin "Rogue" (Li). Three years after his partner's death, Crawford now heads a unit devoted to stopping the Asian mafia. In the next hour or so, the audience must endure a waterlogged plot that goes far beyond the tale of revenge that has been advertised. Crawford tracks two feuding gangs, the Yakuza and the Triads, who are each trying to get "Rogue" to serve as a hit man for hire. Crawford declares war on "Rogue." The Yakuza declare war on the Triads. Crawford declares war on the Yakuza and the Triads.
But in terms of action, the war in "War" is more of a mild skirmish. The clutter of gunfights and shootouts limit Li and Statham's talents as martial artists. Instead of complex fight sequences and intricate high-speed getaways, the audience is rocked to sleep by the occasional fistfight and chase that focuses more on the model of the car than the speed it's traveling.
"War" follows the typical action movie guidelines: Instead of taking these expected plot points and mixing things up, "War" abuses the common conceptions of action thrillers and runs them into the ground.
"War" could have been much better if it added to the formula for intriguing action-thrillers, but instead, it uses the unfortunate mix of sub-par acting, lukewarm action and conceptual thinking to deliver a forgettable film. This weekend, make love and not see "War."
