War (2007)

Director:

Philip G. Atwell

Writers (WGA):

Lee Anthony Smith (written by) &
Gregory J. Bradley (written by)

Release Date:

24 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

One wants justice, the other wants revenge.

Plot:

An FBI Agent seeks vengeance on a mysterious assassin known as "Rogue" who murdered his partner.

Plot Keywords:

FBI | Assassin | Betrayal | Vengeance | Triad

Cast

Jet Li	...	Rogue
Jason Statham	...	Crawford
John Lone	...	Chang
Devon Aoki	...	Kira
Luis Guzmán	...	Benny (as Luis Guzman)
Saul Rubinek	...	Dr. Sherman
Ryo Ishibashi	...	Shiro
Sung Kang	...	Goi
Mathew St. Patrick	...	Wick
Nadine Velazquez	...	Maria
Andrea Roth	...	Jenny Crawford
Mark Cheng	...	Wu Ti
Kane Kosugi	...	Temple Garden Warrior
Kennedy Montano	...	Ana (as Kennedy Lauren Montano)
Terry Chen	...	Tom Lone

Also Known As:

Rogue Assassin (Australia) (Hong Kong: English title) (Philippines: English title) (Singapore: English title) (South Africa: English title)
Rogue (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sequences of strong bloody violence, sexuality/nudity and language.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin | Japanese | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | UK:18 | Ireland:18 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:NC-16 (edited version) | Hong Kong:IIB | Australia:MA | Philippines:R-13 | Norway:15 | Malaysia:18SG | Netherlands:16 | Taiwan:R-18 | Japan:PG-12 | Finland:K-15 | South Korea:18 | Germany:18 | New Zealand:R16 | Peru:18 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Current Entertainment

Trivia:

The motorcycle ridden by Jet Li is a Hellcat made by Confederate Motor Company.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Rogue is in his gun vault, he is loading a pistol magazine with his "depleted Uranium" rounds. The rounds are clearly 5.7x28mm, and the magazine is for a FN Five-seveN handgun. However, the gun he supposedly inserts it into is a Walther P99 in 9mm. This would be impossible because the Five-seveN-magazine is too big for the Walther.

Quotes:

Rogue: Tom Lone is dead. My name is Rogue.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fighting (2009)

Soundtrack:

Mariachi 1

Several Weaknesses Mar This Good Film

"War" is a serious, sophisticated, powerful action-thriller with a decent plot and good performances, especially by Jet Li. The sound effects, music, and action work together to rip the tension down off the screen. This is wonderful example of no-nonsense, make do without the stupid jokes and rapport and focus on the methodical psyche on both on the part of the characters on the screen and the audience. Unfortunately, the accumulation of weak spots and a rather abrupt and discordant ending almost ruin this movie. There is one scene where Jet Li's actions as a master assassin is sorely tests credibility by how easily he is discovered and almost caught and there is a another scene where Jet Li's facial expression is caught revealing something other than the stoic, stern look in the most obvious scene as if to say let's try to show the audience that he's really OK. Chang's wife, the Chinese Triad, in the scene which she has an opportunity to speak to Jet Li alone seems incredibly amateurish, unpolished as a performance, almost droning artificial from the rest of the movie. While there is great action and fighting in this movie, there is one fight scene where it becomes so furious, even in the beginning, that it's impossible to follow what is happening to whom whereby the story gets jumbled and collapses partially - becoming fighting for fighting sake whereas a great director would have been able to save the plot outline even in this complicated and physically well-executed stretch of the movie. Jason Statham's seems to have martial arts skills above his job classification which make it sometimes a bit incredible, but still enjoyable. By the time the twist comes along, it's actually quite a nice one, but not executed with the greatest of credibility, it just doesn't seem plausible that it could have happened the way it did. Finally, the ending just isn't as well done as the rest of the movie, it just seems to lose power somewhat and end abruptly without a sense of cinematic satisfaction. These critical comments do not however sufficiently take away from the movie to transform it into a bad or even mediocre movie. This is overall a good, compelling, and rather complicatedly sublime movie. This movie is rich with action, sound with its characters that sometimes plays out as a psychological thriller and Shakespearean caliber. It could have, however, been a really great movie.