Way of War DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

There are some flicks I receive to review that I think will be good and are bad, and vice versa. There are flicks I've never heard of that turn out to be gems, and flicks I've heard great things about that suck a big one. Then there are flicks that you don't really care either way about, but are only 87 minutes and will be a quick review... that turn into one of the biggest pieces of s&%t you've ever seen, like The Way of War.

First of all, I find it kind of sad that Cuba Gooding Jr., an Oscar-winning actor, has relegated himself to such schlock, taking up residence with the Steven Seagal's, Dolph Lundgren's and the Wesley Snipes of the ass-end of movies: straight-to-DVD. It's kind of surprising too because he was last seen in American Gangster, which was a great film and he really was pretty good in it as well. But his last few flicks have been for the shelves only and, honestly, if this is the best he can do these days, well, have fun in Straight-to-DVD Land, Cuba. Say hi to Steven, Dolph and Wesley for me.

I'd love nothing more than to tell you what this flick is about, but I'm really not sure what that is. Basically, David Wolfe (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is fighting the good fight in Iraq alongside Sanchez (J. Omar Castro) and Sergeant Mitchell (J.K. Simmons) on a top-secret mission to take out the big-dog terrorist leader. Actually, no. We start with some White House official who says in a speech on New Year's Eve that the terrorist, known as the Ace of Spades, was captured and killed, but the three soldiers that are heroes are also dead. But, Wolfe isn't dead, and he's searching for the truth and the guy, played by John Terry, is told by his trusty aide, played by Lance Reddick, that Wolfe is on the loose and he must be contained before he exposes what really happened there.

There is absolutely no tiny shard of any semblance of entertainment, ANYWHERE. The script by director John Carter (presumably of Mars since he doesn't get the medium of film at all, it seems), and Scott Schafer jumps all over the place, bringing us back and forth between the combat zone of this fateful day and Wolfe back in Washington, trying to piece this whole conspiracy together. The film has no cohesion or any possible sense of these transitions and the film just jumps back and forth, seemingly without purpose, all to lead up to the big finale, which was about as asinine as the as humanly possible, mainly because they jumped around so much that we really have no idea where the flip we are and it's almost exhausting trying to figure out what is really going on.

While it's no shock to see Cuba Gooding Jr. in a flick like this, I was incredibly shocked to find the likes of The Wire's Lance Reddick, Clarence Williams and even the amazing J.K. Simmons. This really goes to show you how lucky some people get with casting but I'm really surprised why they didn't sell but I still can't imagine actors of this caliber would be in such TERRIBLE film. Perhaps they all owe favors to someone and that's how they're here, but this show is so mind-numbingl boring. What's funny is that, despite all the talent here, the performances were super-week at best, for everyone. This goes to show you how important a director is because, J.K. Simmons, who is immensely funny in his other flicks, somehow looks like a washed-up talentless buffoon here under the directorial "guidance" of this film.

Speaking of directors who should never work anywhere near Los Angeles ever again, John Carter might be the Ed Wood of late. He makes Simmons look like a huge dork in scenes and no one at all, in this whole movie, seriously, gives any partial possible semblance of a decent performance. This should fall squarely on director John Carter of Mars, because everyone has had solid-to-great careers, and can display range and talent and all that good stuff... which is something apparently director Carter discourages.

To be totally honest, I just simply can't write about this utter piece of burning garbage. It's honestly one of the worst movies I've EVER seen and I can't believe they delivered some great talent.... but a shoddy script and worse direction. Nap time... My brain is about to explode.

Sorry folks. Nothing to see here except a Trailer. Lame.

The film is presented in the anamorphic widescreen format, in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

The sound is handled through the 5.1 Digital Surround format. I didn't see the Dolby Digital logo anywhere, so that's not a good sign and it must be some cheap rip-off for the sound formatting. What's also incredibly sad and totally horrible is they don't even sync up the subtitles right here. They are a few minutes slow and it's really pathetic to watch.

Nothing to write home about. The front cover is pretty much all Cuba, with a shot of him brandishing his rifle and a profile-view shot of his head in the background, with a lame tagline and title card below. Snore. The back has another lame tagline, in lieu of a critic's quote, a brief synopsis, a "special features" listing, which is really just the tech specs and "Previews" and "Film Trailer" (which aren't that special of features) along with three random pics from the flick and the billing block. Double-snore.

Don't be fooled by the alarming amount of notable names here. This is flat-out one of the worst movies I've ever seen that does nothing but confuse, bore and rob you out of 87 minutes you could've spent doing anything else. This is an atrocity of a flick.