W A R

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Summary:
Crazy-ass violent FBI agent Jack Crawford and his partner almost capture an elusive killer-for-hire who goes by the name "Rogue". Jack's partner Chang shoots him in the face, but doesn't kill him. Rogue gets ticked off and offs Chang and his family. Cut to three years later, and Rogue's back from the underground with a newly constructed face, and Crawford will stop at nothing to find Rogue and exact revenge.
Meanwhile, Rogue has plans of his own, pitting the San Francisco Chinatown's Chinese Triads up against the Japanese Yakuza, looking to cause war between the two.

Review:
It's a tough call when going to see a Jason Statham flick. I love the guy, he's got charisma, a sexy voice and stubble to die for. It's just that half his movies kick major ass and the other half SUCK major ass. War managed to kind of slip just between the cracks, not quite being a completely bad movie, but never accomplishing much beyond the mediocre.
The good things with this movie is that it has two very solid action stars. Jet Li and Statham are a great choice for any action movie, especially when putting them together. Another added bonus is the fact that they went completely R rated for this. This is the kind of action movie that requires the on screen violence vibe, and an added perk is the attempt at showing some naked ladies every now and again. When it comes to these kinds of action movies, it's almost a staple to try and throw in not just on screen violence, but also some superfluous nudity. That gives the movie a verifiable status as "R rated chop socky action flick". Said nudity - when dealing with the Japanese Yakuza - is to have a high class restaurant with rich Japanese clients eating sushi off of a naked woman. I honestly can't recall if this movie did that or not, but something tells me that yes, they did.
I also enjoyed the concept of the story itself. I like having a Chinese assassin choosing sides, and following no one. Both sides want him on their team, but they can't trust him, either. This is because he's a Loose Cannon, a rogue (ooh!). Rogue's attempts at getting the two sides to wage war on one another is ripe for good times, but I also think that his methods and planning are a little too simplistic. The most complex you can get with this movie is the writers' knowledge of the Japanese and Chinese both needing to save face. For the Japanese side, they understood the strict respect to authority in the classic Japanese sense, of not stating your disagreements or concerns of their actions to someone of higher status. This is about as far as it gets when it comes to Rogue understanding the intricacies of the Asian mafia underground.

The less impressive elements to War is that the pacing is way off. It feels to go on a little too long, and I lost concept of time or fluidity of pace while watching it. Another negative is the overly simplistic planning of Rogue's attempts to pit two gangs against one another. It was way too easy. One of the worst decisions was having Devon Aoki in this movie at all. What's worse is that her ugly flat-face and squished up mouth look worse than they have in any other movie I've seen her in... and that's saying QUITE A LOT! At least in Sin City she's in black and white! Even more humiliating is her Japanese. She's supposed to be a Japanese native, and even me - not knowing the language - can see that she must have spent about 30 seconds before each take listening to someone say her line and then repeating it like the novice of the language that she is. It doesn't help that she can't act anyways, but her horrible butchering of the language is an insult to the acting community, Japan, our intelligence and beautiful talented actresses who've never had a shot in Hollywood.
The other major complaint lies in Jack Crawford. He's supposed to be an FBI agent, but he seems more like a reckless vigilante. He never pays attention to legal procedure, is willing to torture and kill people right in front of other agents and the local police. Are we supposed to believe that because he's FBI he can get away with such outrageous disregard to the law in front of anyone? I guess so, because nothing bad ever happens to him with his bosses, or Homeland Security, or Congress, or whatever. It frankly became a little unnerving, and the plausibility of his actions would have been easier to digest if he decided to quit the FBI and become a well respected independent Private Detective, where the cops might have turned a blind eye to some of his tactics because they know his history of losing a friend and partner. But that's just me. It still would have been a little silly, but at least have affixed a more acceptable standard in some way.

So, what was War good for? Not much, but far from nothing. There were some funny bits throughout ("My gun is bigger than yours," haha that's a good one), and it wasn't trying too hard to be an intelligent action flick. Their main goal was to have an entertaining martial arts based movie with people killing each other a lot. In that department, it was serviceable. When it came to the storyline itself of Rogue pitting two major crime syndicates against each other, it also fell short of good, but didn't become all that bad. So in the end, War is a completely mediocre action movie that might be worth checking out if you feel like filling in some boredom time and can't think of something great to watch at that moment.

GRADE: C-

Reviewed: 8/30/07