War is a fairly generic action thriller featuring the pairing of Jason Statham and Jet Li. The pair have made five films together!

In this one, Statham is Crawford, an FBI agent tracking down a mysterious assassin known as Rogue (Li), who killed his partner. Set in San Francisco (read as Vancouver) the film features some interesting ideas and moments, and Li is appropriately menacing, but the material never elevates itself higher than a basic action film.

Still, it has a solid supporting cast, John Lone (in his last film), Saul Rubinek, Sung Kang, Terry Chen, Devon Aoki, Hiro Kanagawa and Luis Guzman. A few of those names will be familiar to Fast and the Furious fans.

There are bad cops, Yakuza, ex-wife, and all the typical tropes you would expect. Sadly, even the action sequences aren’t what you would hope for when you have stars like Li and Statham in your film.

The story proceeds exactly as you would expect it to, and while it features some actors, there are also a slew of terrible ones (names will not be mentioned), and that causes the film to flounder.

It’s not a bad film, but there’s nothing really exceptional about it. Crawford doesn’t really seem to care about the law, and the trappings are just there for the two characters to chase one another on foot, in cars, and deliver fights that you know could be better.

And that final reveal of who Rogue is and what is really going on is more than a bit absurd.

Throughout the film, you want to see the two of them go head-to-head, and when they finally do, it isn’t as good as you would hope.

In fact, despite the name, it doesn’t feel like much of a war. And the plot tries to be more convoluted than it needs to be. It’s not a horrible film, but even Li thinks its mediocre at best.

Honestly, despite the cast, most of whom I really enjoy, this one just didn’t do it for me. Let’s be real, everything about this film could have been put together a little better.

Oh well, as we know they can’t all be winners. But hey, at least this cast and crew were out doing it, and I will always give credit for that.

As much as I like Li and Statham I won’t be watching this one again any time soon.