|
Way of War
Imagine the script to the Bourne Identity sitting on a table. Now
imagine getting a big red marker, and starting to cross out things.
First you lose all the great action sequences, which is a shame but
there is still an intriguing mystery to be solved. Now take the red
marker to that, and cross out until only the barest bones of the mystery
are left in, and what’s left doesn’t seem to make much sense. Then with
that red marker, flip to random pages and insert flashbacks, but not
just one stream of flashbacks, multiple ones.
It
makes it better if they aren’t connected in any order at all. Then cross
out most of the dialogue, insert quotes from Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’,
and then go on Wikipedia and look up quotes from every action film or
political thriller, and mash them in there. You’ll also want to ram in
an illogical side plot for best results. After that go to the front
page, cross out The Bourne Identity and write The Way of War, go film
it for a couple of bucks, and then chuck it randomly at DVD
distribution houses. Congratulations! You have made a movie that isn’t
worth watching!
The
Way of War is bad, very bad. Cheaply put together, poorly acted, and
stagnantly directed. The plot revolves around David Wolfe (Cuba Gooding
Jr), a paramilitary operative who returns to the USA after being
declared dead in a mission to kill a Middle Eastern terrorist leader.
The government immediately starts following him, because David is set on
uncovering the truth about some massive political conspiracy. What
follows is a boring confusing mess that feels awfully long for its 87
minute run time. Poor Cuba Gooding Jr must have made some devil’s
bargain, because after the success of Jerry Maguire, he has gone from
bargain bin to bargain bin churning out some of the crappier movies of
the last decade.
This
probably isn’t even the worst one, which is a shame because he really
did do some good work in Jerry Maguire. Here he isn’t so much bad, as
just miscast. He doesn’t really ever seem believable as a hardened
killer, and doesn’t really look it either. One scene, where for an
inexplicable reason, he has to box a rather large intimidating fighter,
Wolfe ducks punches over and over again like a cartoon animal before
delivering a crushing blow that doesn’t even seem all that harmful. This
scene is perhaps the pinnacle of laughable moments in this film, as in
one fell swoop takes away what little hint of Wolfe being an incredibly
dangerous human.
As
previously stated the film contains numerous flashbacks that are
inserted at seemingly random points, probably to con viewers into
thinking the film is cleverer than it is. In these flashbacks we see
Wolfe the family man, and how it was all taken away from him. Actually
that isn’t really explained at all but it does happen! We also see the
“mission” that the operatives go on, which looks like three guys playing
dress up in a gym locker room. With the small budget big action set
pieces are obviously out of the question, but they mission plays out in
such a way that it feels like it is of little to no importance.
The
best thing to do with The Way of War would be to walk straight past it
and pick up one of the Bourne Trilogy, hell get all three. At least that
way you will be watching a film about an incredibly dangerous man being
hunted by his government and come out entertained. The Way of War isn’t
even good enough to recommend as being a “so bad it’s good” type of
film. Just put it down, and keep walking. |
