Oh I am so excited about this news, Jason Statham and Jet Li are teaming up for Rogue where Statham is once again chasing the elusive Li. I am so excited about this news because Statham rocks…but there are some very bad things about this film.
They appeared before in The One, which wasn’t awful and had some pretty cool scenes in it, so that’s one thing to add to the good pile. Then there’s the fact that Statham rocks and his screen presence is superb, as well as his action hero status, and he’s not half bad in fight scenes either. Then there’s Li, who can be stunning in action sequences. Sounds like a great setup for an action thriller, and let’s take a quick peek at the blurb from Empire:
The plot focuses on Jack Crawford (Statham), whose partner Tom Lone and Lone’s family are killed by an assassin for the Chang crime family. Crawford becomes obsessed with finding the elusive and brutal killer, Rogue (Li).
Okay, so that’s the good pile, sounds pretty fab so far. Corey Yuen is set to direct and choreograph the action sequences, and to remind you he did that for both Transporter movies…yes, Transporter 2. That’s the first HUGE problem for me. Some of those action sequences were good, but a good few absolutely stank and were laughable…they even raised laughs in the audience.
Second, and final big deal. Music video director Philip G. Atwell is set to break into directing features with this movie. His previous work has been for 50 Cent, Xzibit, Eminem, and an episode of The Shield. Actually that doesn’t sound too bad, but there’s no movie experience in there.
So with all that are we expecting huge, unbelievable and often laughable action sequences with pumping music and fast cuts? This seriously has the needle in “oh dear”, but there’s hope in the form of that one episode of Shield and the first Transporter, as well as Statham…What do you think?
