The 20th Century Fox fanfare (with CinemaScope addendum) is performed on jungle drums and didgeridoo. Sometimes, a film earns points even before the opening credits hit the screen; other times, a variation on a studio logo is as avant garde as it gets. War's two predecessors handily proved the gimmick …
The old story, with new operatic embellishment, of brothers on opposite sides of the law (Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix), plus a father firmly on the lawful side (Robert Duvall), and Russian drug dealers so ruthless and repugnant as to straighten out the bent brother. All pretty obvious and overstated, although …
Modestly budgeted little crime film traces the well-worn path of the ex-con who wants to go straight but who veers off under bad influence -- in this case into the unsexy world of corruption in the commuter-rail industry around New York City: bribery, kickbacks, intimidation, and, when necessary, rougher stuff. …