War Path is your typical revenge/action movie where the lead uses a “certain set of skills” to get back the person they are looking for. It’s been done better and has been more entertaining in other hands. While not downright awful, you struggle to find a reason for this film being made. There is just very little to justify watching it.
Joel is a contract killer barely scrapping by as jobs start to become few and far between. On one less than ideal job, he learns far more about who he works for and how much the cops know about everything. All this leads to his wife being taken and held hostage in order to get whatever information Joel may have on him. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, it turns out that taking a hitman’s wife is not the best idea. Thus, Joel goes on a rampage, or warpath if you will, to get her back.
Gary Nohealii does well enough as Joel. The problem is the character just isn’t all that likable. In fact, that’s a running issue with War Path as a whole. Just about everyone is wooden, two dimensional or unlikable. Some even are all three. The only two that really stand out are Liz Clare as Sabrina, the wife who is kidnapped. As more of her story is revealed, she is able to convey the needed emotional without ever falling into the usual damsel in distress. The other stand out is Kelly Lou Dennis. She plays Tanya, an arms dealer with a complicated relationship with the lead.
While the film is boring and a majority of the characters are bad, War Path could be saved if there was some solid action. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here. Somehow the fight scenes are even more boring than the dialog. They were uninspired and uninteresting. Like just about everything else in this film, we’ve seen better in the past. But even boring fights in an action movie isn’t the worse thing this movie has going for it.
The editing is bad. Not just the rough jumps between scenes. But the whole flow of the film comes off as rough and disjointed. It seems as though they thought of one idea to utilize but after using it once, they decided to just drop it. One of the biggest examples of this is the beginning. It’s framed as an interview with a suspect after a rather gruesome crime scene, but we never hear about said crime and the film never gets to that point. In fact, how War Path is structured, you would be forgiven if you’re surprised when you find out Joel is married.
War Path is a movie that struggles to even justify why it’s worth your time. The action is boring, the acting is wooden and plain with the exception of Liz and Kelly and the pacing is all over the place. The whole time you’re watching, you’ll be torn between checking your watch and wondering why you’re still watching.
3 out of 10
War Path | ||
RATING: | NR | |
Runtime: | 1 Hr. 25 Mins. | |
Directed By: | ||
Written By: |