One of the problems with being a fan of action films is that you really can't listen to critics. If you see an action flick get some bad early buzz it can always be chalked up to the fact that most licensed film critics are blowhards who don't know bunk about the genre. So when the bad word started to spread about the new Jet Li/Jason Statham pairing WAR I didn't bat an eye. Turns out this time the bad buzz was deserved.On the surface WAR is right up my alley. It's about a hard boiled cop squaring off against a ruthless assassin while various Yakuza and Triad gangsters get caught in their crossfire. What could go wrong? Pretty much everything. Jet Li looks bored out of his mind through the whole film. It's hard to believe this is the same guy who delivered genuinely good performances quite recently in both UNLEASHED and FEARLESS. Statham fares a tad better. He gets the best sequence in the movie as he goes buckwild on a bunch of foes in a teahouse. But that was just a slight reprieve before it was time for the movie to continue sucking.
I probably could have forgiven a lot of what this film had to offer if it could have at least delivered a slam-bang final fight between Li and Statham. I don't think that's too much to ask from a movie titled WAR that features a poster in which the stars look as though they're going to do battle in UFC 786. But nope, when it's time for them to throw down it feels as if the fight ends before it even started. I haven't felt this gyped since Tyson/Spinks back in '88.
This movie gives WAR a bad name.
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