Leofwine_draca
Jet Li. I confess, I love the guy. I love seeing him in the movies, kicking backside and doing all of his magical kung fu stuff. Now that previous box office winners like Van Damme and Seagal are sitting helplessly on the STV racks, Jet Li is the only persistent martial artist out there giving his fans the kind of films they want to see. But his Hollywood career (and let us remember he is only in his third year of it) has been somewhat choppy. Li seems to alternate between making good and bad films on rota. His debut was as the baddie in LETHAL WEAPON 4, which despite entirely negative reviews was a film I really enjoyed due to the well-staged action and stunt sequences. Next was ROMEO MUST DIE, his first "heroic" role but one I missed out on. Then Li made KISS OF THE DRAGON, which is by far my favourite film of his, an authentic and hard-hitting kung-fu flick, an action film like they used to make in the old days. Then recently he came up with THE ONE which was another letdown.Sadly ROMEO MUST DIE falls into the pattern as one of the misses rather than the hits and my recent viewing substantiates this. Basically, the plot is a spin on the age-old Shakespeare romantic tragedy, except this time the gangs are Chinese and black, to give it a modern multi-cultural appeal. Ignore the Chinese aspect of the story, which is played down majorly, as instead this is more of a modern urban black story of street violence and, like Seagal's EXIT WOUNDS, consists of large black men making unfunny jokes and unappealing R&B music playing over lots of expository sequences. The would-be coolness of the production is a long way from those classic days of '70s blaxploitation and instead this feels like a watered down version that has lost its bite.Unfortunately the film never seems to know what kind of a movie it wants to be. Despite the title and Shakespeare connections, it never works out as a romance as Li and Aaliyah never even get to kiss. The martial arts stuff is kept to a basic minimum and tends to be ruined by some godawful CGI effects which make Li do impossible manoeuvres in the air like kicking nine people and then jumping up again, spinning around and kicking another five. Plus, many of the fights are supposed to be "funny" (examine the appalling football-fight), leaving us with a string of half-hearted action sequences which fail to engage the blood rush an adrenaline junkie hopes for. At least Li got back to basics with KISS OF THE DRAGON, which offered straightforward fighting and hardcore violence to the max.The acting isn't bad, but it's just that the various roles are rather uninteresting. Some – like Isaiah Washington's villain – are over-simplified no end, whilst others like Delroy Lindo's shady gangster are just too complicated so you never really know which side they're on. Li isn't bad as the hero, but he feels a bit awkward in places, something which he has happily cleared up in more recent ventures. Aaliyah is also surprisingly good in her film debut, although not quite Oscar worthy. Lindo, as always, puts in an excellent supporting role. One aspect the film does have in its favour are the violent X-ray images, where Li hits an opponent and we get to see the various bones breaking on the skeleton, although thirty seconds of the harder stuff has once more been excised by the worthless censors that our country employs. So overall I would skip this eventual disappointment and instead seek out the next movie of Li's Hollywood career.
C. Sean Currie (hypestyle)
"Romeo Must Die" is an action drama starring Jet Li, Aaliyah, and Delroy Lindo.Hong Kong cinema standout Jet Li spent the 80s and 90s mostly known to Asian and select international audiences. His American introduction was as a heavy in "Lethal Weapon 4"-- for Li, a rare turn as a villain.Apparently, "Lethal" producer Joel Silver promised a lead heroic role as a follow-up, and "Romeo Must Die" was the vehicle.The film is a very loosely-updated take on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet-- but don't look for any allegories except in the broadest of strokes.Li plays Han, a 30-ish Hong Kong police officer who took the fall for a crime he didn't commit, allowing his father (and younger brother) to escape the Chinese mainland to the United States.Po's father Chu turns out to be a career racketeer, and as the story opens up in Oakland, California, he is in the midst of a violent "turf" conflict with a prominent black gang boss, Isaak O'Day (Delroy Lindo). Aggravating the conflict is the recent mysterious murder of Han's brother Po-- Chu blames O'Day's gang, but Isaak is firm in denying any involvement.Meanwhile, Isaak is working on a mysterious real estate project, and his top lieutenant Mac (Isaiah Washington) may have his own secret plans.Trish (Aaliyah) runs a small boutique in Oakland, possibly a vanity gift from her dad, and she catches the eye of Han, who comes to her store while following clues left behind by his brother.The bodyguards who work for Isaak openly don't like the Chinese fellow getting too close to Trish, so problems ensue and the fists and feet start flying.The mystery gradually unfolds about who killed Po and just what the big plans are of Isaak. This is explored alongside a very chaste romance between Han and Trish.Character actors like Lindo, Washington, and Russell Wong help anchor the film which could have gone in a campy direction.Aaliyah is very pleasing in her debut role, and comes across as very natural in portraying the college-aged Trish.Jet Li is very capable in all the martial arts sequences, which, likely is the main reason for watching this film. Since English is not his native language, it's difficult to judge him for coming across as a little stiff. Still, at a fantasy level, it would have been interesting to see an Asian-American in the Han role and dispense with the conceit of being foreign born-and-raised.Viewers should also recognize a younger Anthony Anderson ("Black-ish") in an early role here as a hapless henchman.Rapper DMX has an important bit role here as well.The director, Andres Bartowiak, is Eastern European in origin, making this movie very multicultural in its filmmaking pedigree.This movie is very worth checking out, as it is basically taking a B-movie premise and giving it an extremely glossy look. In fact, it is not unlike a 90 minute music video, full of hip-hop music in the background for various scenes.
niamhloftus-gti
'Romeo Must Die', where Romeo swaps swords for martial arts. This action, martial arts film was released in 2000, where Andrey Bartkowiak made his debut as a director. It stars Jet Li and Aaliyah, who play Han Sing and Trish O'Day, respectively. The storyline focuses on Han, who seeks to avenge the killing of his brother. On his journey to finding out the killer, he falls for the daughter of a businessman, who is carrying out a major money deal with his father. As the film is categorised in the genre of action, you may think that it is not for everyone. However this would be a wrong assumption to make. The film does have a lot of scenes, which showcase the amazing martial art moves of Jet Li, but there are also other scenes which show emotional sides to the characters, which is why I really like this film. There are underlying themes in the movie, concentrated around the emotion of Love. The first, is the romantic love between Jet Li's character Hans and Aaliyah's character, Trish O'Day. This brings me to the title of the film, 'Romeo Must Die'. The name 'Romeo' has connotations with the character of Romeo in William Shakespeare's, 'Romeo and Juliet'. There are parallels between the character of Romeo in the play, and Hans in this film. When Romeo meets Juliet, he is instantly in love with her, this is the same with Hans and Trish, after their first meeting, he seems smitten by her. Trish comes across as a strong, determined woman, who does not always see eye to eye with her father. This is like Juliet, who acts rebellious towards her father, when he arranges that she is to marry Paris. In the film, it appears that Mac, who is Mr. O'Day's right hand man, is similar to the character of Paris and seems to think he has a chance with Trish. The most interesting similarity between the play and the film, is that Han's family are at war with Trish's family. This war between families adds another dimension to the film, which is not expected in this genre. This dimension is that of being human, which makes the film realistic to the viewer. Action films often concentrate solely on the action, with a bit of a storyline, where the main characters survive anything that is thrown at them. It is almost as if they are indestructible. However in this film, it combines these fight scenes, with a main storyline containing emotional scenes as well. These scenes of emotions, are at the core of the second type of Love, which is family love. This is mostly demonstrated through the father- son relationships in the movie. The relationship Isaac O'Day and his son, Colin have is one of love and protection. This is in contrast to Hans and his father, Ch'u Sing, where there seems to be tension and resentment, over the reasons why Hans went went to prison . These family dynamics also centre around the term loyalty. It is clear from the beginning where loyalty lies within the two families. However, as certain events occur, you begin to question the loyalty of some characters. It is worth mentioning, that as it is mostly an action film, there are some disturbing scenes, which the viewer may find distressing. I would like to mention that I thought the way the director showed these graphic scenes, was unique, as I never seen that been done before in film. So what else can the viewer expect, well there are car chases, fighting, guns and shooting. As some of the content in the film, is quite heavy at times, it is balanced out with the emotional scenes, and also some comical scenes. These comical scenes come mostly in the form of the character of Maurice, played by Anthony Anderson. One is where he is in a music store, with headphones on. He gets so into the music, that he ends up knocking records of the wall. In conclusion, the film does have everything that you would want in any film, a hint of romance , comedy and a lot of action, martial arts. If there was one critique to this movie, it would have to be that unlike Romeo and Juliet, we do not see the passionate scenes between Hans and Trish, but it could also be argued that a relationship is not just based on the passion. In this way, the director may want the viewers to enjoy the growing chemistry between Hans and Trish, with a view to the audience believing that by the end of the film, there is a happy ever after for the two characters. This critique aside, I would definitely recommend this film. The best way to watch this film is to have an open mind when viewing it, as you will enjoy it. It is not one of those films, where you have figured out what's happening next, there are a lot of shocks and surprises along the way. I would also go on to say, that after watching the film, it has made me see Jet Li as more than just a martial arts professional, but an actor. This is down to the main reason that the film is not just about fighting, but love, family and loyalty.
