Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (September 3, 2026)
Christened at birth as the effeminate-sounding "Marion Morrison", the aspiring Hollywood tough guy changed his name to "John Wayne", a sobriquet that remains shorthand for a certain kind of American masculinity. Christened at birth as the even more effiminate-sounding "LaMonica Garrett", the athlete turned actor stuck to his guns and kept his real name when he shifted to films.
Good for him! Though I question the sanity of his parents.
Apparently they named Garrett after NFL quarterback Daryle Lamonica, so why not do the practical thing and name him "Daryle"? I can't imagine the automatic assumption Garrett was a girl was easy for a kid who grew up in the 70s and 80s.
Anyway, after an acting career mostly on TV with only supporting parts in films, 2026's Man of War allows Garrett his first big-screen starring part. The question becomes what he does with this opportunity.
Set at the start of the Russian-Ukrainian War in 2022, retired US Special Forces soldier Michael Connor (Garrett) currently resides in Spain. However, he finds himself called back into action when he learns that his niece Riley (Rosmary Yaneva) gets kidnapped in Kharkiv.
This sends Connor to Ukraine. He faces heavy odds as he attempts to find and rescue Riley.
Prior to this screening of War, I’d seen two projects from director William Kaufman: 2015’s The Marine 4: Moving Target and 2016’s Jarhead 3: The Siege. While I found Marine 4 to offer a thoroughly terrible flick, Jarhead 3 managed moderate entertainment value.
Thus I hoped to get a Man of War more in the vein of the latter than the former. Instead, it falls somewhere between the two, as War seems pretty meh but at least it fares better than the awful Marine 4.
War comes across like a dime-store stab at a Jason Statham film. We get the nearly unstoppable loner who stops at nothing to rescue someone he loves, just like in the 2025 Statham flick A Working Man - and most of that actor’s other movies, too.
Actually, Garrett doesn’t quite go Full Solo Statham, as War partners him with Ukrainian guide Dany (Andrew Howard) and uses a long-distance contact Charlie (Jason Patric) to help with locations. Still, Connor does feel like a chip off the Statham block, though I guess he could be viewed as analogous to any number of other sullen warriors on difficult missions.
At no point does anyone involved in War make it anything more than a totally perfunctory action flick. Oh, its use of the situation in Ukraine to feel “topical”- especially since the conflict continues with no end in sight four and a half years later – but this just seems like window-dressing.
Garrett looks amazing, especially for a 50-year-old during the shoot, but his acting skills range from “glowering” to “sulking”. While does okay with the action scenes, he brings zero personality to his role.
Everyone else comes across as cliché and without nuance. Heck, Patric literally phones in his role since Charlie only ever appears as a remote contact for Connor!
War comes with persistently pulsing and urgent music along with persistently frantic camerawork. The script feels totally “paint by numbers” and despite attempts to use the conflict in Ukraine to humanize the story, it comes across as utterly anonymous.
Could I find a worse action flick than this? Sure. Outside of some dodgy visual effects, the movie offers reasonable production values and throws enough violence at the screen to make it tolerable.
However, I could throw a rock at my movie collection and find a bunch of superior action flicks. Man of War exists as basic direct-to-video fodder that fills time on streaming channels and nothing more.
