Blu-ray Review
The Warrior's Way
Directed by: Sngmoo Lee Cast: Dong-gun Jang, Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush Running Time: 1 hr 40 mins Rating: R Due Out: June 28, 2011
PLOT: A warrior-assassin (Jang) is forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands after refusing a mission.
WHO'S IT FOR? Viewers capable of suspending disbelief. Suspending disbelief in the film's manifest content, and also in the fact that such cheesy CGI FX actually exist. In all seriousness, people who get a kick out of action for action's sake, will likely enjoy this film, and fans of Jang, Bosworth and Rush will likely be pleased with each actor's respective performance.
MOVIE:
The Warrior's Way is definitely a B-film. However, it maintains just enough self-awareness of it's inherent silliness throughout, to make for a fairly enjoyable watch. My opinion before seeing the film, based solely on its trailer, was not a very optimistic one. The film's FX are ridiculously cheesy and outdated by many years -- it looks like they spared much expense in this department. The cinematography fell prey to the aforementioned el cheapo FX too. Still, the sound design was enjoyable, I loved the fantastically gargantuan gun employed toward the film's finale, the 'chock-chock-chock' sound was music to my ears. The score, the editing, the story and dialog were all passable, nothing new here, but good enough for a modest distraction.
Originally I'd had close to zero interest in this film, but having Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush attached to the project, that piqued my interest a bit. Bosworth had been absent from the motion picture scene since 2008′s 21 and before that 2006′s Superman Returns, and I’ve always enjoyed her work, so it was cool to see her again. I thought she did a great job, and she looked even lovelier than usual. The presence of Geoffrey Rush suggests a higher caliber film than one would otherwise assume -- don't be fooled, Rush doesn't elevate this film, he rather sinks his thespian teeth into this cheesy morsel of a B-film, and hams it up to the full. He did a great job, and made for a nice addition to the film.
Before watching this film, I was unfamiliar with the film’s lead, Dong-gun Jang, but he was charismatic enough, he's got a nice brooding/handsome confidence going. This was director Sngmoo Lee’s debut, and taking such into consideration, I must say this film was pretty darn good if not a little cheesy. Nothing to rave about, but for what it was trying to be, it was a good effort.
MOVIE SCORE: 6/10
EXTRAS
- Behind the Scenes Montage (HD, 2 min.) — Brief featurette with actor interviews.
- Deleted Scenes (SD, 12 min.) — 13 deleted scenes.