Review of The Warrior's Way (2010) by Abu S — 14 Jan 2011

A true Noddle western.

Frequently in Hollywood ideas and themes will cross over into one another, most films are simply a hybrid of two ideas from films mixed together nowadays, however The Warriors Way is slightly different, it's a western film, with a Japanese director/writer, but this is Sngmoo Lee first film and the question is, will the sun rise in the east or will it just be another Kung POW?

I want to tell you Warriors Way is a great film, that it's something totally different from what you've seen before, one of those rare gems on current cinema like The Disappearance Of Alice Creed or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but I can't. The truth is, no matter how good Warriors Way is, it will always come out as a total mess.

I will forget for a moment the one dimensional, stop ,drop and roll story, and instead I will opt to talk about how the whole film feels totally disorientating. Of all the films I've ever seen, it has such a bizarre feel to the shooting that there is nothing I can even compare it too. The film sort of feels like it was going to be in 3D but wasn't given the privilege, but no on bothered to correct the aspects or ratios, which give the film a slightly diagonal feel to the whole thing. It doesn't help either that the whole town (and most of any background at all) was clearly CGI'ed (for no reason I can really think of). However saying that the film is heavily, and I do mean HEVILY stylised, this is probably an attempt by Sngmoo Lee to make his standard movie a little more appealing.

Sngmoo Lee needs to make the film more appealing because left to it's own devices it's just literally a rip off of several other films, I personally counted no less then 6 films that it's blatantly taken off, no respect or irony, just ripped off totally. And as opposed to how Sngmoo Lee probably hoped people would react; which is "wow, that's a nice reference" ,you are just left sitting in your chair saying "Wow, this film has veritably no ideas of it's own, AT ALL!" even the overall feel and cinematography looks like it was stolen from 300.

It's a shame because somewhere inside Warriors Way is a great film just waiting to fight it's way out. We are handed the token heartless warrior that must find a heart (he even needs a women to help him find it, and a baby) in Yang. Yang is acted by Dong-Gun Jang, who looks and feels like an alternative Jet Lee. Apart from Yang we are given Lynne a wise-cracking, pure white trash, attractive female, Lynne has with revenge on her mind. Lynne is played by Kate Bosworth who every time I see her is improving. We even get the pleasure of one of the most nasty and likeable villains in recent memory in the disfigured Colonel. Colonel is played by the ever enjoyable Danny Huston, however for some reason Huston over exaggerates ever S-IN-GLE syllable in the role and you also can't help feeling that they really wanted Tommy Lee Jones but just didn't have the budget. Oh and Geoffrey Rush is mixed in somewhere playing his standard phoned in character.

The Warriors Way has so much potential, and it's a good enough film, but really it should have been named "Once Upon A Time 300 Flying Dragons Reloaded With The Wind In Silence, And The Ugly True Rashimon Vol 1.".

(for those interested the films in the last paragraph were:

Once Upon A Time (In Mexico).

300.

(The House Of The) Flying (Daggers).

(Enter The) Dragon.

(The Matrix:) Reloaded.

(Gone) With The Wind.

In Silence (Of The Lambs),.

(The Good, The Bad) And The Ugly.

True (Grit).

Rashimon.

(Kill Bill) Vol.1).