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Starring Nicholas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Biel.

My first question, when watching this movie, is how does Nicholas Cage always manage to have such young co-stars? I mean, as a man of years, he can, upon occasion, manage to seem a decade or so younger. But Jessica Biel cannot be conceived as being two decades older. It's kind of odd and a little off-putting.

My second question: What kind of diner serves Martinis at 8 in the morning?

Apparently, the Vegas kind.

Then there's questions like, why pick up the gun that isn't yours? Why steal a car when you're only being chased by hotel security? Or why do middle-of-nowhere hotels only ever have one room left?

But as far as the movie goes, it's actually pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised. I was worried that it would be on a level with Ghost Rider, but it's closer to The Rock or Gone in 60 Seconds. The acting was a little...not half-hearted, more like 3/4. They were there, but not all the way.

The timeline of the film gets a little jumpy, but it would, in a movie about time travel. And I don't exactly understand how the "two minute" rule works, but whatever. The special effects are good, the fight sequences are fun (who doesn't like to see Nicholas Cage take a punch to the jaw?).

It does, however, have two main problems. One, the film always feels like it's building up to the main conflict. And given problem two, this never gets resolved. Problem two: the ending sucks. It's terrible, cheap, a major cheat, and rather aggravating.

Other than that, it's a good film. Really.


3/5

War

War is an action movie starring Jason Statham and Jet Li.

I love Jason Statham as much as the next person, probably more. But it's fair to say, he doesn't always make great movies. I barely made it through "In the Name of the King" and I barely made it through "War."

The premise of the movie is this: Statham is an FBI agent who's partner is killed by a mysterious assassin ("Rogue," face unknown). Years later, the assassin returns (played by Jet Li) and begins playing both sides to start a war between Japanese Yakuza and Chinese Triad. Naturally, Statham and his obsession with revenge (which has cost him his marriage) drive him to do everything he must to hunt down Rogue.


I give Statham a lot of credit. It seems to me that he's well aware of his acting limitations. So rather than struggle for work trying to be "legitimate," he makes the movies he'd like to make, possibly movies he'd like to watch. He likes kicking ass, so that's what he does. And I love him for it.

But this was not a good movie.

The plot, while not necessarily complicated, was made complicated. So you're reaction is "What?" and then ten minutes later "Oh, I got it, rival gangs. Why didn't they just say that?" Which, more or less, ten minutes later, they do.

To be honest, the plot was also kind of dumb. Neither clever or original, it just didn't make you care about anything. And while Statham is certainly believable as an action star, he just wasn't believable as an FBI agent. There was no sense of a system of regulations, or even laws (not his fault, just poorly written). "The One" did a much better job of giving Statham, essentially, the same job. Also, after Statham lost his partner, he was suddenly heading a task force of about four people. Just extra characters thrown in for no reason. Some are there sometimes, some aren't, some get shot (but I'm still not clear if they died), some do the shooting (rather un-climatically too).

There's also unnecessary dramatics from one characters insistence on a salad (we get it, she's tough, but repeating it three times and explaining the reason and what kind you want and dressing on the side...it's a bit much) to Statham and Li having a five-minute confrontation in a warehouse (that's empty) and only Statham talking, and the owner of the warehouse (a bad guy who realized the FBI hit a dead-end) just what? Standing around watching this guy yell dramatically at the other? It was a bad scene choice.

There's also an over abundance of flashbacks (we were watching, we know what happened), a lot of suspiciously-fast travelling, an odd moment with some background characters, and another odd moment where Statham is sitting alone in the middle of a kid's playground (weird, right?)

The dialogue is terribly written (one character is reminded of a saying, and proceeds to tell an entire story), and in some cases, poorly delivered.

The movie has potential, though (or did before it was made), telling the story from the other side (which you'll only understand when you reach the end).

Also, for a movie called "War," the title doesn't really make sense. Yes, there's a gang war, but it barely feels like one. And the war between Statham and Li isn't much either. Since they barely interact. Frankly, for an action movie, there's a surprisingly small amount of action. The good fight/chase scenes are too short, the bad ones too long.

And finally, the ending is a big letdown. There's a poorly-revealed "twist", an odd shift in focus, another poorly revealed "twist," and then the movie just...ends. Kind of strangely, too.

Look, over all, skip it. Not a good Statham movie, not a good Jet Li movie.

2/5

(high simply because it has Statham in it and I'm totally bias)