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+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more