Herald rating: **
Cast: Jet Li, Aaliyah, Delroy Lindo Isaiah Washington
Director: Andrezej Bartokwiak
Rating: M (violence, offensive language)
Running Time: 110 mins
Opens: Now showing, Village Hoyts cinemas
Review: Russell Baillie
It's the hot new visual effect - anatomical cutaways showing what sort of damage all that violence would be doing if, hey,
this wasn't just a movie.
Gulf War caper Three Kings did it with bullets. Now - the debut for Hong Kong martials arts star Jet Li as a leading man Stateside- has it in a sort of Technicolor x-ray.
Snap! A broken prison guard's arm. Crackle! A henchwoman is impaled on a handy spike. Pop! Li finishes off anhother baddie with a blow that causes a nose-to-tail pile-up along his verterbrae.
So yes, ouch, but it's all part of the fun. What isn't, are those parts of the film which aren't fight sequences.
No, there aren't that many. But its plot of murder, revenge, treachery and romance between warring crime families is laughably hackneyed.
There's a small redeeming feature in its unusual demographics with the two clans - one Chinese, one black - which are acting as the rival land-grabbing muscle for a white developer who wants to build a waterfront stadium for an NFL team.
When family members on both sides start meeting untimely demises, it's up to Han (Li) to bust out of a Hong Kong jail, head to America, make friends with the equally rebellious daughter (singer Aaliyah) from the other side and put matters right.
It's wise enough to make sure any acting Li has to do is in Cantonese and any comedy in English, while the soundtrack speaks rap and r'n'b very loudly.
And as a hip-hop chop-socky flick it might certainly appeal to appetites starved of a B-grade action fix. But its unimaginative efforts reduce its gymnastic star to just another gimmick among many.
Now ain't that a kick in the head.
