I just watched this because I wanted to see Jet Li and Jason Statham fight...alot...like the whole movie. I figured that was going to be the whole point, to film two amazing martial arts fighters fighting, with a little plot thrown at it.
And I got one fight that lasted about 3 minutes tacked on at the end of the most nonsensical "twist filled" mess of a plot.
So yeah, profundly ripped off!
I kind of agree. I thought a movie with both Jet Li and The Transporter would be 100 million times better than this. Especially if they were enemies.
It wasn't "awful" but it wasn't "good". Had potential to be a good movie, but crappy writing got in the way. Disappointing.
Reminds me of "Harlem Nights" I remember going in thinking that a movie with Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, *AND* Redd Foxx has to be the funniest movie ever made. Was an OK movie, but disappointing. Should've been great was only so-so. Just like this movie.
That Jet Li/Jackie Chan movie was disappointing too.
This is a truly terrible movie. The idea that a man gets two war raged gangs to turn on one another wasn't really the main aspect of the story and it should have been. It is also directly stolen from Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo".
Also the "twist" at the end was unpredictable because it made no sense.
D.
The twist at the end made perfect sense. Unfortunately, it was too predictable. I told my wife half-way through that I thought Rogue was actually Crawford's ex-partner.
I know I'm not the only one who caught that...
There were hints to Crawford being a bit underhanded as well, although him actually working for Shiro was a bit of a surprise. He was too one-dimensional throughout the whole movie. He was only worried about catching Rogue and had no desire to really take down either of the rival gangs. Now we know why, since he was on their payroll.
Yeah, the ending basically ruined the movie. Statham and Li only fight once? And the fight between Statham and Li was WAY too short -- I expected Ali-Frazier IV and instead we get Tyson-McNeeley II, only instead it's a draw.
Also disappointed that they had someone as beautiful as Devon Aoki in the movie, but didn't make her look all that beautiful (they couldn't find a way to get her into a classy party dress for even one scene?), and she was supposedly dangerous (she threatens a couple of guys), but then wasn't involved in a fight scene. Basically, having her in the movie was like having a scene where there's a machine gun sitting on a coffee table while three people eat lunch and talk about sports......but nobody notices the machine gun. I mean, why the heck was she even in it?
The very end (where Li adopts the name of the assassin, and then drives off in an expensive car with lots of money) felt like a sequel setup, but not a sequel that I'd want to see.
I would have felt OKAY about this movie if the fight scene between Jet Li and Jason Statham was something we could actually see! Why shoot it in such an unclear way? Both guys can really fight why not let us see them in action because that might be a good movie. That was the only reason I had bought a ticket to this and I left the theater feeling ripped off.
shareYes, OP, and Stratham's character was swinging a sledgehammer at
Li's character in the fight?
Really?
~I can sing better than Taylor Hicks!
I'd give the movie a 6/10. The majority of the flick was entertaining enough. The action scenes were mostly pretty solid, a bit on the short side and Li used a gun way too often, but all would be forgiven if the Li vs. Statham fight kicked ass. Sadly, it did not, as it just ran way too short. Makes no sense to me, either. Surely, the filmmakers knew the reason anybody would want see this film would be to see Li and Statham get into an epic one on one battle.
shareAnd Yojimbo was stolen from Hammett's Red Harvest.
So, really, War just carried on the the tradition.
I agree with the feeling ripped off. The damn poster shows them in a teasing position, clearing advertising those two facing off...and then it's a crappy fight scene that's no more a fight scene than a family movie is a porn. So this makes TWO movies those two were in where they're underplayed...and it's worse because the director of The One WANTED those two to fight in that movie but was unable to make it work! This face off was built up WAY bigger in my mind than simply the poster...
Such a disappointment.
As far as the movie, I thought it was pretty decent. I'd buy a copy in the discount bin.
Agreed. To start with, the whole gang-vs-gang plot was old fifty years ago. Boring.
Statham is just wasted, as it is obvious that the producers wanted to make a Jet Li movie that would sell huge in Asia, but also wanted a white guy on the poster so they could also sell it in the US and Europe.
So, write two big checks for actors, rent some sports cars and katanas, and there's your movie.
*****major spoilers so don't read on if you haven't seen it!!!!*****
Actually....Statham's character got shot but we're not sure if he's really dead or not. Almost as if the writers were paving the way for a sequel (which we'll, thankfully, probably never see).
And leaving Devon Aoki with the box will surely spur her to take some sort of action...also paving the way for her return...which, hopefully, she will not. I have nothing against the lovely Miss Aoki but her being the daughter of yakuza boss is soooooooo not likely. Couldn't they have just found some nice Japanese girl like the chick who played Gogo in Kill Bill 1? And the fact that Chang had a caucasian wife as well...it's like the two bosses were competing to see who becomes more westernized.
Tiss a weird film that leaves a weird taste in the mouth. The story is not too terrible but when you can actually understand the Chinese or Cantonese it does put you off a bit. It's like they cast a French or Spanish person and try to pass them off as a local Brit. Or when everything is all serious and someone speaks and you can't stop noticing their bad accent, pulls you out of the story.
Yes, this is just me ranting coz I was looking forward to a nice action film and it turned out to be a "spot the terrible accent" film. ergh