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War (2007) + Article/Rant.

Dir: Philip G. Atwell

FBI Agent Crawford (Jason Statham, “Crank“) and his partner Tom (Kenneth Choi) are on the trail of American Yakuza rackets. They are also on the trail of a mysterious assassin known only as ‘Rogue’ (who no one can identify as he has regular plastic surgery) who works for the Yakuza boss Shiro (Ryo Ishibashi, “Blue Tiger“).
During an operation at the docks they run into ‘Rogue’ and Tom saves Crawford’s life by shooting the assassin, who falls into the sea and is presumed dead.

But ‘Rogue’ survived and his next stop is Tom’s house where he shoots Tom and his family and when Crawford arrives at his partner’s house only burnt flesh and smoking timbers remain where his friends had once been.

3 Years later a bitter and angry Crawford with his new team is going all out to take down not only Shiro and his Yakuza but also the rival Triads run by Li Chang (John Lone, “Year of the Dragon“) when suddenly his nemesis ‘Rogue’ (Jet Li, “Once Upon a Time in China“) re-appears…only this time ’Rogue’ not only seems less worried about his latest face being identified but he also seems to be working for Li Chang and the Triads, not Shiro and the Yakuza!

As Yakuza takes on Triad and open warfare erupts in the streets, Crawford has a far more personal war to deal with, against ‘Rogue’….

After mixed reviews “War” actually turned into a real surprise.
Packed with violent and gory action, some great stunts and slamming moments of quick fire martial arts (Jason Statham is getting very good at this 'Movie Fu' and Jet Li has a couple of nice moments too) “War” delivers some of the best and frequent action seen in a long while but still manages to have a complex, multi-character plotline without any tired 'buddy buddy' antics or wink at the camera humour.
This is serious, violent and exceptionally well made action/thriller making.

Highlights are many, from motorbike chases, car chases, well staged gun fights, a smattering of martial arts violence and some gory Samurai sword action. Basically everything you could want in an action film with a Hong Kong elements dropped into the mix.

Only Jason Statham's lousy, keeps on vanishing, American accent gets in the way of the drama, but he’s always a pleasure to watch has become very adept at wire assisted martial arts and is just a completely likeable screen presence. Even in such amazing company he held the wonderful “Snatch” together and I was overjoyed to see him become so successful a British import.

Jet Li is also extremely good (despite supposedly not liking the finished film) in a multi-layered role as the bad-ass assassin who ruthlessly eliminates anyone who gets in his way, but at the same time has an intriguing human side to his killing machine existence.
Although not really a martial arts movie Li has a couple of acceptable hand to hand fights but really delivers in the sword fighting scenes that deliver some welcome gore.It’s to the credit of director Philip G. Atwell and screenwriters Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley that they not only juggle two big stars in a complex plot while never compromising on the action, but it’s also a job well done in the way they manage to do all that and still get so many support characters and actors into the mix and keep them memorable as well.

As well as the substantial presence of Lone and Ishibashi we have Devon Aoki (“Sin City”) as Shiro’s lovely but lethal Daughter, Luis Guzman (“Carlito’s Way”) as Crawford’s undercover operative and a little cameo by Saul Rubinek (“True Romance”) as a shady plastic surgeon.
And even then they still manage to ensure many of the Triads and Yakuza members as well as Crawford’s FBI team also have a recognisable face and make a mark.
It’s one of the best juggling acts with action, multiple characters and a solid plot I’ve seen since “True Romance”.

The ending seems to annoy many though, and I can see why. But because I see why it does not mean I remotely agree.
I thought the finale delivered some fine and unexpected revelations that (for the most part) hold up to close scrutiny and which were amazingly brave and different (for what is basically a crowd pleasing actioner) and that added a dark edge to the film while cleverly not destroying all the great, crowd pleasing, action that had gone before.
With direct Hong Kong skills being utilised in front of the camera and behind the camera (Cory Yuen did the fight choreography) and indirect Hong Kong action movie influences being well implemented in the general style of the action "War “ is a fine example of modern American action/thriller making.
In fact Hollywood in general is starting to crank out some exceptionally entertaining, high octane thrillers (“Crank”, “Shoot Em Up”, “Smokin’ Aces”, “Running Scared”) that seem to be leaving Hong Kong action movies behind as they (not always but often) moodily succumb to reducing action films to 2 hour dramas with a bit of action 15 minutes from the end.

Forget the armchair moaners and the Hong Kong cinema elitist's who automatically hate anything American (yes there are most certainly some awful American action flicks using HK actors/directors. But hey, there are no absolutes) and just sit back and enjoy 100 minutes of finely crafted, deliciously violent, involving and action packed entertainment.
And hell, on top of all that it also features an excpetional pair of breasts, so it's win win!
Now off to "War" you go.

 

 

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There was a time when American action cinema was looking tired and dull (just check out the pensioner paced, film-school technical level action in something like "Invasion USA" to see why the world desperately needed the likes of John Woo, Ringo Lam, Wong Jing, Cory Yuen and Tsui Hark to make our hearts beat once more), and when Hong Kong was delivering the kind of fast paced, action packed thrillers (but still essentially full of emotion and character) the likes of which we had never seen before.
But a dismal drop in quality during the middle 90's saw Hong Kong cinema fall from grace to such a extent that not even the mighty Chow Yun Fat could help it (as he churned out vomit like "Return of the God of Gamblers", "Treasure Hunter" and "Peace Hotel") and soon the exodus (helped by the handover of Hong Kong to the murdering Communist old men from China) had started.
But how could things look well when all we had was tired old tosh like "A Return to a Better Tomorrow" that could not even deliver the skilfully crafted action scenes we had come to expect.

While at the same time (with HK influence at times for sure) the 90's were gold for American extreme thrillers and no-nonsense action films ("Con-Air", "King of New York", "Air Force One", "Natural Born Killers", "Freeway", "Wild at Heart", "True Romance", "Bad Lt", "Reservoir Dogs") and only Johnnie To managed to get the Hong Kong cinema heart started again with the exhilarating likes of "Fulltime Killer". Which looked like a good sign.
But sadly now, since the art-house crowd took note and HK cinema started to win poncy awards from poncy critics (who had no idea who John Woo was till his Hong Kong swan-song "Hardboiled" made a little splash in Hollywood just before he packed hi bags) Hong Kong cinema seems to have left making pure, balls-out action films behind and instead chooses to wine and dine (even Johnnie To has done it numerous times) the 'serious cinema' critics and crowd with glossy and dull 'deep and heavy' dramas that add 10 minutes of action to the start and end and forget about it for the rest of the film. As if action is so below them nowadays, like the recent "Flash Point" or even "SPL".

Yes they are well made and may work as dramatic cinema...but not much/nothing worth mentioning action until 20 minutes before the film ends is not what made Hong Kong action cinema great.
Imagine "The Killer" with no real action to peak of except the church battle (and even that would lose half the bloodshed nowadays)?
Not a good thought is it.
And it's a style and an attitude that's a long way from the full-on action heights of even something as serious, epic and dramatic as "Bullet in the Head" (which managed that trick of providing involving drama and lots of action all the way through), that mesmerised and thrilled us during that brief golden age of 'Nu-Wave' Hong Kong action cinema.
And "War" is an example of Hollywood currently delivering the kind of well staged action and violence that so much of today's lauded Hong Kong cinema often fails to do.
Whether there's a Gwailo producing/at the helm or not.