Review: Rogue Assassin/War


Jet Li stars as assassin Rogue, playing both sides (Triad, led by John Lone, and Yakuza, led by Ryo Ishibashi and his daughter Devon Aoki) in a San Francisco war over a supposedly valuable artefact, both sides thinking Rogue works for them. Meanwhile, agent Jason Statham (an expert on Asian culture and criminal organisations) could care less about the crime war, he just wants Rogue for personal reasons. He holds the elusive assassin personally responsible for the death of his partner a few years back, and now wants revenge. Turns out, revenge is a dish best served cold, but here also served somewhat complicated.



2007 Philip G. Atwell (a first-timer experienced in rap music videos mostly) crime/action flick brings together action stars Jet Li and Jason Statham, and puts them in a slow, overly-complicated (hence the slowness, as the complex story has to unravel), sometimes silly, but sometimes quite interesting crime story (influenced by Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo” in parts) with a few fine action scenes thrown in.



Aside from a terrific sword fight, Li isn’t given as much opportunity to kick arse as I would’ve liked (mostly gunplay when he does get the chance, which for me defeats the purpose of casting him in the first place. However, Statham’s performance is among his better ones and his character is the most interesting (similar to Mickey Rourke’s character in “Year of the Dragon”). The supporting cast is rather interesting (Lone and Aoki are better than usual, Ishibashi is really fine, and Luis Guzman...well, he’s his usual fun self. Saul Rubinek’s out of place here, though and has been much better elsewhere. The film’s big twist is almost worth seeing the film for, silly as it might be. It’s pretty audacious and (at least for me) entirely unexpected.



Not bad, but for a supposed action film, I was surprised and ultimately a bit disappointed that action wasn’t the film’s highest priority. It’s a watchable film (as was the previous Statham-Li pairing, the underrated “The One”), but a little less plot for once, actually would’ve been an improvement. Funny how that works.



Rating: C+

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