The Warrior’s Way: Blu-Ray with Digital Copy: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Review by JAM
Two rival clans have pursued each other to the death, with bloodshed and destruction being the end goal as the greatest warrior in the world fights his way to the last living member of his rival’s clan, an innocent baby. Finding that his heart paled at the loss of life of the innocent, he gives up his sword and heads off to the New World, the Old West to be exact.
Searching for a former friend, he stumbles upon a non-traveling circus down on its luck which is facing its own crisis of violence as a western gang of ne’er-do-wells has its sights set on revenge for a past act of rebellion. Caught in the crossfire of this viscous gang and his own blood out for his blood, this lost ronin must find his own path whether through violence or protection… or both.
Starring Dong-gun Jang as Yang, the centerpiece of our story as the greatest warrior in the world, Kate Bosworth as Lynne a young woman broken in ways but with a great inner strength, Geoffrey Rush as Ronald a former gunslinger set to atone for his past mistakes, Danny Huston as the Colonel an evil sadistic bastard coming back for a second run at the run-down old town, and Tony Cox as the carnival leader Eight-Ball. All in all an odd crew to put together, but they put on a guilty pleasure type of fun movie.
JAMS Ink on The Warrior’s Way
Talk about a kinetic, slashing, bloodbath of a good time. This movie has so many aspects of so many genres, that it makes it hard to put a finger on what Warrior’s Way really is. The Old West setting hearkens back to the lone gunman cowboy movie when the hero is one against the world. The samurai honor that Yang finds lends to the movies dealing with the code of the samurai, protecting those weaker than himself. The bloodshed and hyperkinetic violence reminds one of a video game full of gratuitous violence and blood filled gore. This is a guy’s matinee movie, a chance to sit down and not have to worry about the plot all that much, to revel in the violent blood work and enjoy a movie with a flawed hero, a flawed heroine, a bunch of messed-up carnies who need a hero, and a fast action packed climax to a movie that is pretty fun.
Kate Bosworth’s character is an interesting conundrum in this movie. Her accent is interesting with a flair for the period, yet overdone a bit. It truly stands out a bit too much as her accent takes over the character at times. It is a bit of a nuisance as her character is actually interesting due to the back story, but the accent can seem to detract from the overall rooting for her.
The sword play in the movie is outstanding, even if much of it is hyperkinetic and greenscreened. The stunt coordinator on the movie must have had his work cut out for him as the genre mixing of the old west and the samurai swordplay are two completely different aspects of violence that needed to translate on screen together. And much like peanut butter and chocolate, they go together well for those that enjoy those flavors.
BLU-RAY Aspects
The sandy undertones of the old west stand out in great clarity in this release. With the filming seeming to be in the dust bowl of the not so distant past, the clarity of dusty dirtiness seems like an oxymoron, but the blu-ray clarity heightens the enjoyment of the film in a cinematic way. Extreme explosions, hyperkinetic swordplay, and overall mayhem suffers no visual issues as the action remains in great clarity throughout the film. Definitely happy to recommend BLU-RAY YES on this one.
EXTRAS
Unfortunately only two extras included on this disc in the Behind the Scenes Montage and the Deleted Scenes. The Behind the Scenes is a quick look at some neat aspects of the film, but it is fair too short to make any impact on choosing to buy the film. The deleted scenes are interesting but not necessary overall to the film.
The Warrior’s Way
Street Date: June 28, 2011
Screen Format: Widescreen 2.40:1 Aspect Ratio
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD
French 5.1 Dolby Digital
Languages: Dubbed English & French; Subtitled English, French, and Spanish
U.S. Rating: R
Total Run Time: 100 minutes
Remember check out this review and more from JAM at www.hollywoodteenzine.com for teens and tweens, and at http://jammoviereviews.blogspot.com for movies of all genres and ages.
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