Unleashed
Review by Tim Basham
Starting with Bruce Lee in the late 1960’s, there has
always been a faithful audience for martial arts films.
But only in recent years has the genre become more popular
in some of the biggest movies out of Hollywood — Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix, Kill Bill:
Vol. 1 & 2 and Hero to name a few.
Jet Li, arguably one of the two biggest actors associated
with martial arts movies today, (Jackie Chan being the other)
has been in only one of the above films (Hero.
And in spite of his popularity, starting with his Hollywood
debut in Lethal Weapon 4 in 1998, there has been a
lurking expectation of something more.
In Hero the film itself was the star with its remarkable
cinematography and mythical storyline. But with Unleashed
Luc Besson has written that “something more” in
which Li is clearly the star.
Bob Hoskins plays a ruthless gangster, Bart, who shakes down
debtors in a unique manner — pay up or he’ll unleash
his dog on you. In this case, the dog is Danny, played by
Li, who was raised in a cage for one purpose — to fight
and even kill anyone his “Uncle” Bart stabs his
finger at.
But when Danny is caught in an explosive dispute between
Bart and one of his rivals, Danny escapes and collapses at
the feet of Sam, a blind piano tuner played by Morgan Freeman.
Sam and his step granddaughter Victoria (Kerry Condon) take
Danny into their home, and for the first time he is treated
as a human being. Li shines in the performance with a childlike
curiosity for the world around him. The scenes between Victoria
and Danny could have been ruined with some sort of romantic
dalliance between them. (After all, he has been cooped up
in a cage all his life.) But director Louis Leterrier keeps
the characters true to themselves, and to the script.
An industrial strength, techno-moody film score from the
trip-hop band “Massive Attack” matches the incredibly
well choreographed fight scenes blow for blow with additional
music from the RZA.
Hoskins is at his despicable best, easy to hate but entertaining
nonetheless. Morgan Freeman plays a notch down from his Oscar-winning
performance in Million Dollar Baby. But a notch down
for him is still better than most.
Besides, this is Li’s film. And it’s about time.
4 out of 5
Unleashed
Australian release: Thursday the 18th of August, 2005
Cast: Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry Condon.
Director: Louis Leterrier.
Website: Click
here.
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