DVD Review: War

DVD Reviews

By Jeff Swindoll Jan 2, 2008, 15:35 GMT

This film wants to be the epic teaming of two action stars, but only produces a whimper and not much bang in the event department. There are some good action scenes but they feel like they would’ve killed in the 80s, but feel old hat and predictable now.

FBI Agent Jack Crawford (Jason Stratham) and his partner Tom Lone (Terry Chen) are hot on the trail of a mysterious assassin called Rogue (Jet Li). Crawford is nearly done in by Rogue but Lone manages to get a shot off and hits the assassin in the face and he falls into the river.

Lone thinks that he’s killed the elusive assassin, but Crawford has thought that the ghostlike Rogue has been done in before only to have him pop up again. They each go back to their respective homes, but Lone has an unannounced visitor as Rogue arrives to avenge himself and kills Lone, his wife, and young daughter. Three years have passed and Crawford’s marriage has fallen apart. He discovers that Rogue has returned and is in the middle of a battle between two warring Yakuza clans, the Changs led by Li (John Lone) and the Yanagawas led by Shiro (Ryo Ishibashi). Crawford begins his pursuit of Rogue anew and a dangers game of cat and mouse begins. “War, huh, good God ya’ll what is it good for? Absolutely Nuttin.” Well, I don’t know that I’d go that far, but the sentiment might apply. The poster promises a battle of action hero titans with Li and Stratham facing off, but the two characters spend most of the time apart and the potentially explosive action finale between the two ends with a whimper instead of a bang. Stratham growls his way through this role and Li sounds like he learned his lines phonetically (when he has them he’s the strong silent type in War). Li does get to show off his martial arts action skills, but it’s against the clans and not Stratham. To that degree there are some good action/battle sequences but never really involving both stars at the same time. The plot also seems like something that we’ve seen time and time again and really doesn’t offer anything new. War is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is available separately. Special features include a commentary by director Philip Atwell, another from writers Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory Bradley, and an audio trivia track. Next is the 72-minute “Action of War” which breaks down nine action scenes with interviews from the filmmakers. It’s followed by a 2-minute gag reel, one 46 second extended scene, 87 seconds of deleted scenes (noting exciting), and the 9-minute “Scoring War” about the film’s music. Finally there are some trailers for other Lionsgate titles.

War had all the hallmarks of being a battle of major action stars, but ended up going out with a fizzle. They really don’t catch up with each other till the very end and then it’s more talk than fighting. The film has its moments, but they never live up to the potential. War is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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DVD Review: War

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