www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/27/DD85RP2NK.DTL
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Starring Jason Statham, Jet Li, John Lone and Devon Aoki. The success of a movie starring Jet Li, Jessica Alba or any WWE wrestler not named the Rock is reliant almost exclusively on the actors' ability to keep their mouth shut and kick people/look hot/hit people over the head with chairs. The makers of "War" seem to understand this and give Li almost no meaningful dialogue. Next to Li's character, Matt Damon in "The Bourne Ultimatum" looks like he's remaking "My Dinner With Andre." But they manage to screw up almost every other part of the picture, including the usual steady performance from underrated action-star Jason Statham. In the realm of cop cinema, "War" falls somewhere between "Another 48 Hours" and a "Hunter" TV movie. The shortcomings of "War" are plentiful, but ultimately come down to three basic problems: Problem No. Supreme badass choreographer Corey Yuen is listed in the credits, but he must have caught mononucleosis four or five days into the shooting schedule. Li and Statham, who seemed to average a fight every 10 minutes in the superior "Unleashed" and "The Transporter," get one solo martial arts scene apiece in "War," followed by one insultingly brief one with each other. Early in the movie, Luis Guzmn shows up as a dude who runs an underground pit fighting club, and you just assume one or both will end up in the cage. Bay Area residents should be used to this trick by now, but the "War" filmmakers are particularly egregious about failing to hide the fact that most of the San Francisco scenes were shot 950 miles to the north in British Columbia. It's one of those San Francisco movies where most of the local landmarks were shot from a helicopter. But Li is in a lot of scenes where he's required to look menacing - and he can't handle that job either. While other characters carry the thespian load, Li mostly stands motionless with a confused or quizzical look on his face, like he's trying to remember what his wife told him to bring home from the grocery store. That leaves the weight of the world on the well-formed deltoids of Statham, who proceeds gamely in his role as Jack Crawford, a San Francisco detective whose partner was murdered by Li's character, Rogue. Statham tries to hold things together, but there isn't enough humor in the script and not enough style in the direction by newcomer Philip G Atwell. A few plot twists keep things interesting, but the best ones come long after anyone could possibly care. If you want to see Li and Statham in an underwhelming martial arts film, rent "The One" instead. Li talks considerably more in that movie, but at least he punches a lot of people out. There's also a San Francisco police detective who lives with his family on a big plot of land, giving the false illusion of affordable Bay Area housing for the middle class.
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