Remember that underrated Jason Statham move with a one-word title? No, it wasn’t Snatch, Cellular, Revolver, London, 13 or Spy, it was much more of straightforward action thriller.
Nope, it wasn’t Chaos, Crank, Blitz, Safe, Parker or Homefront, either, Jet Li was in it. Not The One, because technically that’s two words, even if the first is a prefix. There’s nothing if not a pattern in how the chrome-domed martial arts expert and all-round cinematic badass chooses his projects, but they can always be relied on to find an audience on Netflix.
The latest Statham vehicle of choice is War, the largely forgotten 2007 effort that earned $40 million at the box office and was widely panned by critics, holding a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 13%. To signal that he’s dangerous, Li plays a hitman named Rogue in the movie, who murders an FBI agent and his family by the end of the first act.
Seeking revenge, Statham’s Jack Crawford spends years tracking down is adversary, becoming nothing short of obsessed. When Rogue resurfaces, with Crawford having sacrificed his own family life in the process, he sets out to complete his mission, even if it results in all-out… well, you get it. War is far from one of the star’s finest efforts, but it’s proven popular enough on Netflix over the weekend to crack the streaming service’s Top 20 most-watched list.
