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War (2007)

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137 comments in total

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443 out of 629 people found the following comment useful :-
Reasons to see WAR, 29 August 2007
Author: metrbot

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.

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148 out of 208 people found the following comment useful :-
For the fan boys, 24 August 2007

Author: lastliberal from Florida

This is a man's film. They really should be selling brats and beer in the theaters for attendees. Anyone going to a film with jet Li or Jason Statham should know what to expect. Going to a film with the two of them and you know there is going to be blood, violence, killing, action, noise, and an eventual winner. If this is not your cup of tea, go see The Nanny Diaries and leave this to the fan boys.

This is not their first film together. They both appeared in The One six years ago. This time they are the leads and on opposing sides - Statham an FBI agent and Li a contract killer. The action takes place in the middle of a Yakuza war in San Francisco.

Fans of Jet Li will not be disappointed. he still has all the moves even if he is 47; however, he does rely more on swords and guns, and other weapons in this film. Statham is Li's equal and gives as good as he gets. The story has an interesting twist which i will not give a clue on as it is a major plot point.

Interesting entertainment by girls in cages at the Yakuza club. I thought that went out in the 60s, but it was a nice diversion.

This film is red meat. It has no pretensions of quality and dialog is minimal, which goes along with the story. If you are a fan, you will be entertained. If you are not, why are you there?

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58 out of 83 people found the following comment useful :-
Several Weaknesses Mar This Good Film, 27 August 2007

Author: tabuno from utah

"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.

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61 out of 96 people found the following comment useful :-
testicles not included..., 31 August 2007

Author: reelhead from United States

There are a lot of postings about this being a "guy" movie, or needing a "pair of testicles" to enjoy it. Let me tell you about this film from a woman's point of view. I loved it! It rocked. I am older than the usual crowd for this film, at 35. I went on a Friday night, at the 10:20 show, and the theater was dead as can be! I was thrilled! I had a great view of some amazing car chases, great motorcycle stunts, and hot guys fighting - what could be better? The acting was good, for this genre, but if you are looking for Oscar nods, look elsewhere. If you like a good kick butt film - this one is for you - no matter what is between your legs. There was a lot of T&A, but that is par for the course for this type. In fact, my date thought it was too complicated for him....Seriously - if you like action and real stunts - not the CG stuff, this one's for you.

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36 out of 55 people found the following comment useful :-
"War"--The title gives it away, 26 August 2007

Author: wplanejr from United States

If you walk into a movie theater showing "War" and expect to be dazzled by some thought-provoking paragon of acting destined to change the way the world thinks about film and culture, you're either an idiot or an idealist. It's called "War" because that's what it is, a bullet festival with some sideshow martial arts.

"War" was designed only to be a brutal, dazzling death picture, and it delivers handsomely. There's scarcely 10 minutes at a stretch that lacks any appreciable action sequences, and the end result leaves more dead Asians than WWII. There are some truly insane displays of gunplay and a handful of inventive deaths (my favorites include a hubcap to the skull). Jason Statham delivers a pretty good performance, considering that this is really designed for pure blood-and-guts glory, and Jet Li is as impressive now as he was in "Romeo Must Die" and "Kiss of the Dragon" (thank GOD he hasn't retired). The plot's also not as simplistic as it needs to be, and it includes several plot twists (yet it never quite seems too convoluted, thankfully).

If you want to see War, be ready for it. Know that you'll go in looking for a mountain of bodies, and you'll get precisely what you ask for. My only real complaint is the relatively abrupt ending-- after the many and close-together action sequences, it downshifts pretty quickly, and leaves you wishing there was still a half hour left.

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18 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Fun, if predictable., 14 September 2007

Author: Daniel Ott from United States

Fun, if predictable War is the story of vengeance, naturally. After his partner is killed by a hit man known as Rogue, Jack Crawford, played by Jason Statham, is on quest to find him, and kill him. Rogue, however, is busy setting up a war between two mafia groups, the Triads and the Yakuza. As the plot unfolds, secrets are revealed, and violence follows.

While a fairly typical storyline, there are some clever, if predictable, plot twists involved in the movie. None of this saves it from being a typical action movie however. Too many films go for a cool factor and don't reply on an original story. War does present some cool action sequences, but I still got the feeling I had seen this before, which really kept me from fully enjoying it.

Jason Statham and Jet Li are both great action stars, but have not found too many truly great action movies to star in. With so much potential you would have thought someone would have written an insane script for an ingenious action movie. The action movie genre is constantly getting new movies, yet so few in recent years have truly shown off brand new ideas for it.

Overall, War is a average action flick with some cool fight scenes, good acting, but even though the movie only clocks in at over an hour and a half, it seemed longer. So, if you're a fan of Jet Li or Jason Statham, it's worth a look, but don't expect anything new.

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12 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
War is just WAR!!!, 6 January 2008

Author: hiddenm from Slovakia

War is a movie about War. There is no more that somebody can say. Jet Li and Statham meet on the big screen to prove they are still action heroes.

War suffers from weak plot line and confusing characters. But thats what I expected. Before I went to cinema I read couple of reviews about this movie and was surprised. Many people expected, or it feels like they were expecting, a movie whit twisting plot, color full characters and many more..I don't understand that..THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT KILLING AND ACTION!!!!THIS IS WAR. What more can you expect?? Watch this movie as a action movie,don't ask what just happened, just enjoy the action!

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39 out of 69 people found the following comment useful :-
My.. God, 30 October 2007

Author: Nals P from Australia

Easily Jet Li's worst westernized movie. I usually don't comment or review movies.. i just rate them but after watching this i have to say something, i feel i need to.

A lot of people say that this is an action movie and should be judged on the mind-blowing action and just to enjoy the ride.. I saw no mind blowing action, most of the movie was plot and if i was to ignore all of that i would be left with only a few minutes of horrible action.

The action has little to no martial arts so Jet Li didn't need to be in the movie at all. The stunts were all tame and the editing cut every half-second in the action scenes so that it could make any actor seem like they could empty a room full of thugs.

Jet Li started out great in America with movies such as Kiss of the Dragon and Romeo Must Die. Statham and Li have both worked together in The One which i thought to be a brilliant movie where the plot and the action worked perfectly together.. This movie is the evil twin of The One, the actors stay the same but everything else is screwed up.

Kiss of the Dragon was a movie that had the least amount of plot needed to drive all of the fantastic action scenes. This movie almost wanted the viewer to be taken into its plot and twists. You don't seem to care about any of the characters, some lines you can predict yourself and most of all the action was mediocre at best.

I wont even go into detail about how horrible the ending is, but it left me and my friends in the cinema looking at each other thinking "is that it?"

Jet Li can do better

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28 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
Don't Go to "War!", 29 August 2007

Author: Van Roberts (zardoz@bellsouth.net) from Columbus, Ms

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The Jet Li & Jason Statham urban crime thriller "War" qualifies as one of their worst movies. Anybody that saw an earlier Jet Li actioneer—the futuristic science fiction epic "The One" (2001)--knows that "War" represents the second time that these two action heroes have appeared in the same movie. In "The One," Statham was confined to a secondary role. In "War," however, Statham shares top billing with 44-year old Jet Li, but the two are never on friendly terms. Instead, Statham wants to terminate Li with extreme prejudice while Li sets out to decimate the entire Japanese Yakuza as well the Chinese Triads in San Francisco. Unfortunately, this one versus the other opus never generates enough energy between its trim but grim co-stars because they aren't allowed to display their marital arts artistry until the last minutes of the movie and the martial arts action scene itself between them is incredibly lackluster. Legendary marital arts choreographer Corey Yuen of "The Matrix" trilogy doesn't create any cool looking fights or any new gags that have made him one of the top stunt stagers in either Hollywood or Hong Kong. Most of the time in "War," Jet Li relies on an automatic pistol to gun down the opposition without an expression. Sometimes, he wields a mean razor-edged sword and slices off a head, but you rarely get to see him do anything like he did in "Kiss of the Dragon," "Cradle 2 the Grave," or "The One." Similarly, Jason Statham—best known for his "Transporter" movies and "Crank"—doesn't rip, tear, or shed his apparel during any of the fights. Basically, if you march off to "War" thinking it is going to be the eighth wonder of the world where martial artistry is concerned, you are drastically deluding yourself and the end result of freshman director Philip G. Atwell's realistic but slam-bang crime melodrama will disappoint you. Nevertheless, Atwell delivers lots of savage action scenes with a high body count, but "War" never degenerates into a big, dumb action thriller with clever lines or flamboyant fighting.

Essentially, first-time scribes Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley have taken the classic Japanese sword-fighting saga "Yojimbo" (1961) with Toshiro Mufine {later remade as the Spaghetti western "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) and even later as 1930s crime opus "Last Man Standing" (1996)in which the lone hero enters a town and wipes out two bloodthirsty crime families by swearing allegiance to each but betraying both until nobody is left alive. The biggest difference is that Smith & Bradley have grafted onto this simple but solid formula another time-honored formula about the two cops that have been partners until one dies at the hands of the mob and the other sets out to wreck vengeance on the evildoers that killed his friend. As "War" opens, we're introduced to two FBI agents in San Francisco. Tom Lone (Terry Chen of "I, Robot") and John Crawford (Jason Statham), are best buds that keep their eyes on the Japanese Yakuza gangsters and the deadly Chinese Triad mob. They are after a notorious assassin named Rogue that nobody can identify because he has plastic surgery every six months and then kills the surgeon to preserve his anonymity. Rogue has a nasty way of going his own way, but his trademark—like The Lone Ranger's silver bullets—is his titanium shell casings that he leaves behind at the scene of his crimes. Our heroes think that they have killed Rogue during the opening shoot-out, but he survives and wipes out Tom Lone and his wife Diane (Steph Song of "The Long Lunch") and their young daughter Amy (newcomer Annika Foo) at their cabin and torches the place. When Crawford hears about the massacre, the bodies have been burned beyond recognition, but he finds a shell casing at the scene that matches those that Rogue uses. Crawford swears vengeance and dedicates himself to killing Rogue. In the meantime, his obsession with Rogue undermines his marriage, and his wife Jenny (Andrea Roth of "Highwayman") divorces him, takes custody of their son Daniel (Nicholas Elia of "White Noise"), and moves out. Three years elapse with no sign of Rogue, and Crawford retrieves a titanium shell casing from the scene of a particularly violent crime scene. When we see Rogue this time, he isn't wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask. In fact, this is the first time that we see Jet Li and he is playing Rogue. He enters a Yakuza nightclub and slashes the throats of the thugs guarding the entrance to the boss's gambling den. The Yakuza boss sends his two Dobermans charging after Rogue. We hear one yelp in pain and the second comes back with an explosives device attached to its collar and blows up its owner. Suddenly, Yakuza killers as well as Triad gunmen start dropping like ten-pins and Rogue is the wrecking ball behind their murders.

Writers Smith & Bradley let this nonsense churn on for about an hour and a quarter and then they pull the biggest switcheroo in screen history that contradicts everything in my plot synopsis. Mind you, they drops hints along the way that something isn't right, but you'd have to have read the script to know how incredibly characters change in the last quarter hour. Freshman director Philip G. Atwell makes his directorial debut with "War," and he does just about everything to salvage this drivel. First, he pares down the action to essentials so the whole thing is over with in 103 minutes. Second, he stages the action as if he were shooting a Miami Vice episode. Everybody drives a cool car. Rogue tools around in a sleek, shiny Spyker C8 Spyder, a handmade all-aluminum convertible equipped with electrically operated single-hinge tilted doors, while Crawford steers a vintage Chevrolet Chevelle SS.

"War" barely makes the grade as a crime melodrama.

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13 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Ending...?, 26 August 2007

Author: wspeedc from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I thought the movie had a very intriguing plot. It was well thought out and held the suspense to the end. Although you can realize that Jet Li is actually Jason Statham's partner the reason for why or how is left for you to ponder till the end. I thought however despite the plot the action was blurred by the constant camera motion that allowed the average person to be unable to appreciate/follow the fights. Lastly, the ending was a disappointment in my opinion. It was straight out of Brokeback Mountain and there was not a final clash between Li and Statham which I think my friends and I would have enjoyed. The movie left me thinking only about how bad the ending was rather than appreciating the plot and the movie prior to the final scene. I thought the movie was very interesting however if you are looking for an amazing action film this one leaves you wanting more.

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