Well, I didn't see that twist coming. Totally ridiculous but not much surprises us in films any more and this did. This is the last of the Jet Li Western films I plan to see. I don't see any point in watching the Mummy film and the very Expendable films. Not really Jet Li films unless someone tells me differently. Payday films. And I will never revisit Lethal Weapon 4 because I won't watch any films of that anti-Semitic Nazi.  Jet is just a few years shy of 60 and isn't making many films any more. At one point I recall him saying he would not do action films any more. That lasted for about a minute. Then he realized people only wanted him to do action films and he came back and made a few more. So he is basically retired, sitting on a pot full of money with Nina Li at his side. Not too bad. He suffered a lot of injuries in his career and gave us some truly great films. None of the films made in the West will be mentioned among his best but that is why he has that pot of money.


Every review I read hated this film, so of course I enjoyed it. Not so much as a Jet Li film but just as an action film. There is a lot of testosterone floating around with Jet paired off with Jason Statham and a ton of action and angst. It suffers from what so many modern action films do - too slick, too edited, edited in that choppy manner when there is no need to do it but the director thinks it looks cool, a tiresome soundtrack, a lack of logic and a bad guy who seems to know everything. Yet I liked it. Maybe I just like Yakuza and Triads killing each other because there is plenty of that. Maybe I like the Red Harvest/Yojimbo/ A Fistful of Dollars angle. Maybe I just like Statham and Jet Li. I can't think of a film where I didn't find Statham entertaining and Jet Li interesting. I also liked that Mark Cheng has a nice part in it. And that Devon Aoki looks more and more like an alien. And Luis Guzman being Luis Guzman. And John Lone is in it too.


Statham and his partner (Terry Chen) are FBI agents who are after the Yakuza, the Triads and a phantom assassin named Rogue. The partner and his family are murdered by Rogue and Statham goes on a crusade to catch him. Three years later Rogue shows up with a new face, that of Jet Li and he does the Yojimbo thing - setting the Triads against the Yakuza and vice versa. Soon a war breaks out. Rogue is ruthless and kills everyone without hesitation - but one may notice that he shoots no cops. So what is he up to. What side is he on. Does it matter? Corey Yuen was brought in as usual and most of the action consists of gunplay but with some kung-fu, a little Ninja action and a sword duel. I thought it was done well with the restaurant shootout being excellent. Apparently, Jet said the film sucks - so that makes it unanimous except for me.