It’s February 2022, and Russia has just launched an attack on Ukraine. US Special Forces veteran Maichael Connor (LaMonica Garrett, 1883, Lioness, The Terminal List) is in Barcelona, and in a dark place, thinking about ending it all, when he receives a desperate call from his niece Riley (Rosmary Yaneva, Subservience). She is an aid worker at an orphanage in Kharkiv, Ukraine, who had told Connor that she had left the country weeks earlier. She is taken by the Russians, but Connor gets a look at the man who took her before the phone call ends. Connor is determined to get her back, even if it means heading into this hostile territory alone. His colleague, Charlie (Jason Patric, The Lost Boys, Armor), informs him that the man who took Riley is very dangerous, a man namd Stanislav Koniev (Daniel Bernhardt, John Wick, The Matrix Reloaded, Atomic Blonde), a former agent for The GRU, who spent ten years in IK3 for double homicide and rape.

Charlie arranges for Connor to be on a flight to Kyiv, where he meets another solider on his own mission. Cockney Peter “Bunny” Roberts and his men Zeus and Bam-Bam are after a high-level target worth a $2M bounty. Connor and Bunny agree to share information should they happen to encounter one another’s targets. Once the plane lands, Connor meets his local tour guide, Dany Chevchenko (Andrew Howard, The Odyssey, The Accountant 2), an eccentric, loud and colorful former asset of Charlie’s. He, too is a skilled soldier, and is eager to get Connor to his destination in exchange for passage for him and his family out of Ukraine. However, just as Connor arrives, the city goes into lockdown, with Russian soldiers everywhere. It’s not going to be an easy task to get to Riley, but if anyone has the skills to fight their way through the opposition, it’s these two.

Man of War is a non-stop action flick. Once the bullets start flying, they never seem to stop. It’s one of those kinds of films you just turn on late at night or on the weekend to enjoy the non-stop adrenaline. The plot is simple, but the action is heavy, and you are given enough information about these characters in order to root for them and be invested in their mission. Connor and Dany make a fun duo as they work together to mow down loads of bad guys. They are always severely outnumbered, but always seem to pull through, whether it’s being surrounded by the Bratva mafia, making their way through a forest filled with Russian soldiers, or fighting close quarters in the streets and rundown buildings. The action sequences are well-choreographed and often quite intense. And the sound of the gunfire is constant and fills the room. Just as these guys make it through one situation, they usually find themselves facing yet another threat. The film ultimately builds to an exciting final face-off.

Well Go USA has released Man of War on Blu-ray, DVD and digital. We were sent the Blu-ray version for review, which generally looks and sounds great. The picture is crisp and clean and provides an excellent level of detail when it comes to faces. There are a few moments which make it feel like a lower budget film. Often the establishing shots feel more like paintings rather than photos of actual locations—they look a little too stylized to pass as actual footage. There are also a couple scenes where the guys are driving in a car and the view outside is obviously some sort of green screen rather than real-time footage. But when it comes to the action sequences, these are well done, with fists, knives, and guns constantly ablaze, and all the bloody action captured realistically.

The audio track is quite impressive, making extensive use of the stereo and surround sound to capture the constant whizzing of the bullets. It is also quite immersive—even during interior scenes, you still hear the faint sounds of distant gunfire in the surround channel, giving a sense that this war is constantly going on everywhere, and not just where Connor happens to be.

Well Go’s Blu-ray release does not include any bonus material besides the usual trailer and previews. The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard HD keepcase. There is no digital copy, and our review copy did include a slightly-embossed slipcover.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:50:38)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English Stereo
• Subtitles: English SDH, French

Extras:

• Trailer (2:04)
• Previews:
  • Seven Snipers (1:50)
  • The Yeti (2:09)
  • Frontier Crucible (1:46)

Final Thoughts:

Man of War is an action-packed film with a very simple and easy to follow premise—soldier enters hostile territory to rescue a loved one who has been taken by the enemy and will stop at nothing to get her back. One the action starts, it never stops, and there are constantly bullets flying and bodies dropping. It’s the perfect late night or weekend movie when you just want to sit back and not have to overthink some complex conspiracy or mythology. Well Go’s Blu-ray looks and sounds great, but is barebones and doesn’t include any bonus material.