Rogue - L'ultime affrontement

Hey, if you're interested in seeing a mostly-violent flick with a big body 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, skip this one: this is somewhat brainless blood-and-guts, slice 'n dice. In other words: know what you're going to get here.

We get many, many gunshots to head., long range to up-close-and personal, swords into mouths and through back of head and through just about any other body part, a car chase, motorcycle chases, a few bare breasts and a bunch of attention-grabbing scenes of brutality, which definitely outnumber the quieter scenes.

Jason Statham seems to be the new macho man of the day, playing this kind of role in numerous films the past few years. Jet Li.....well, you know him. Statham versus Li? Yes, but not really. The two are only in the same scene twice, once for a couple of minutes of Jason giving threats and Jet standing there passively, and then in the finale fight scene. The latter, unlike most of these action films of today, is not overdone and go on and on. It's just about the right length.

The best part of this ultra-violent movie dealing with rival Asian gangs and FBI agent (s) in the middle in the BIG twist near the end of the film. At least it makes this a little more than a brainless action movie. I think it's kind of cool, although don't try to analyze it for credibility.

While a number of reviewers here weren't happy that the two big stars weren't on the screen at the same time for long, my choice for under-played actor is Luis Guzman, who is always very interesting but didn't have many lines here. I'd like to have seen his part a lot bigger, and I would have liked to see Statham tone it tone and sound a little more intelligent in his role. In real life, FBI agents have a lot more class.

Having said that, I still enjoyed the film because I knew in advance what it was, that it wasn't Li's best effort nor Statham's but it sufficed for a 100-minute diversion. I was looking for action...and I got it! I also recommend this for those who have HDTV and a Blu-Ray disc player. This is a very slick-looking film on Blu-Ray.

Just don't bring the kiddies or grandma into the living room to watch this!

Reasons to see WAR

WAR kicks ass, and you should see it a lot of times, for these reasons:

• Jason Statham yelling at people, and then kicking ass. In other words, being himself.

• Jet Li killing a guy by kicking him in the face....and that's not his best kill.

• Random girls getting nude for no reason.

• Ninjas. Just when you think this movie couldn't rock any harder, they put Ninjas in the movie.

• A twist ending that would make M. Night Shawhocares *beep* himself.

• A car chase every 10 minutes. There's even one with motorcycles.

• Violence. Lots of it. Guns, blades, blood, kungfu, decapitations, the bases are covered.

-Jet Li and Jason Statham fighting each other. It's as epic as you might think.

So, in conclusion, if you, 1. Like things that are awesome. 2. Have a pair of testicles. 3. Need to see a movie that rocks for a change. 4. Are a human being.

...than WAR is for you.

War walks in the footsteps of movies like Kiss of the Dragon, and the Transporter series. It blends martial arts with stylized shoot 'em up action fairly well to create visually stunning action sequences. One of War's strong points, is that none of these action sequences feel too contrived or pointless; most of them advance the plot in some matter. War attempts to blend it's action with a surprisingly compelling story line, the film's build up unfortunately falls apart in it's lack luster third act.

Jason Statham plays Jack Crawford, a special ops agent in L.A. (we never truly know the unit he's a part of, but face it, it's not important). L.A. is seeing the beginning of a gang war between two Japanese gangs, the Changs and the Triads. As he investigates, it soon becomes apparent that an assassin by the name of Rogue (Jet Li) is involved, the same assassin that killed Statham's partner 3 years ago. This story line seems to be the weaker one of two that are explored in the movie. The more intriguing one involves Rogue who seems to be playing on both sides of the playing field. This moves the movie forward as his dark agenda is slowly revealed.

The movie lends itself to some interesting fight sequences, shoot outs and sword fights. There is a brief chase sequence between Statham and Li, but it feels like an afterthought. The action is spread out well over the 100 minute running time, there are no real slow spots and yet unlike many of Statham's earlier works (Crank) it does give you a chance to breathe. We're treated to one or two exciting twists that tie up a lot of the intrigue before the final act. This is where War begins to slip, it is a very successful action thriller for the first ninety minutes, it's the brief closing that doesn't satisfy.

The ending feels forced and leaves you unsatisfied. It's unnecessarily bleak and doesn't really fit with the rest of the movie. They should have cut the final ten minutes of the movie and replaced them with a tighter ending. But, even accounting for this, War still succeeds in being a solid action thriller. Perhaps if it does well we'll be treated to a sequel that will pick up the pieces of the disappointing ending.

War undergoes one of those unnecessarily title changes for this part 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 Rogue Assassin obviously hasn't seen many movies, or martial arts ones for that matter, or is plain lying through the teeth. You'd half expect that pitting two action stars against one another will instantly mean box office success by pulling in fans of both Jet Li and Jason Statham, 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 the movie called The One back in 2001, where Li had no decent cinematic opponent to spar with, and had to do so with himself, assisted by CGI. With his movies like Crank and The Transporter doubles becoming 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 movies he starred in, like The Italian Job and Snatch, amongst others. It's no doubt I'm a fan, but in Rogue Assassin, all he had to show off his fighting chops, was a sequence in a ubiquitous 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. Or the easiest of all, forget dialogue and kick around like a mad dog - no offense but that's what he really did in Unleashed (which I thought the notion of it all was rather degrading for an action star). Nonetheless he goes back to a story on warring factions again ala Romeo Must Die, but this time, it's not between boyz in the hood, but putting Japanese Yakuza and Hong Kong Triads in the streets of San Francisco.

As I mentioned earlier, there's nothing 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 5 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 movie, when it had expected to, except to give some runway to a possible sequel. War/Rogue Assassin 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 (from his latest movie Invisible Target) lending his charisma but becoming a laughing stock, John Lone demonstrating he's still very much being typecast in Hollywood roles, Devon Aoki continuing to be that flower vase who doesn't look good up close (somehow the cinematic camera dislikes her), and hey, once TV actress from this part of the world, Steph Song, gets a cameo too, spending most of the screen time screaming.

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 movie that you can stick some other monkeys in and still work.

War pits Jason Statham and Jet Li against each other. Both are known for their insane action and martial arts sequences, but for all that talent we never really see one good hand to hand fight between the two. It's your basic revenge story, Jet Li kills Statham's partner and Statham wants to crush his nuts. You know, your basic action movie. Don't expect War to win any awards. Unless there's some sort of awards show with all action movies in it nowadays. If you go into this movie expecting the next Shakespearean masterpiece, you're in deep deep trouble. It's a little more paced than some people make it out to be. There are huge breaks in the action that take time to tell the story and a little character development. Note that they are not small breaks but huge ones. Action comes in doses, but when it does it hits you like a train to the jaw.

There is a slight twist in the movie that helps to accentuate that it's trying to be different from other movies in this genre but it doesn't quite succeed. The "twist" ends up coming off as another of a hundred ways this is just like every other action movie ever made. In the same way most action movies treat themselves (and they should) lightly and with as little detail to realism as possible, so too does War. It knows that it's an action movie, and never expects you to think any thing more about it than that. In this same genre I would recommend Shoot 'Em Up over this, if you have already seen that this might feel a little tame in comparison. In that same way though, this movie has a different flavor and succeeds in its own way. Worth watching, but there are much better picks in this genre.