Not a bad movie. But close to, and sillier than a (Friends) episode!
I have always thought of (Jet Li) as the unfunny version of (Jackie Chan). The man got one stony cold face. He can't smile. And even his fighting skills, that brought him to Hollywood in the first place, weren't shown here at all due to the tragic use of the flying wires. Owing to the producers' fear of any injury that may hurt their lead, or frankly delay their project, they used these odious wires, in so monotonous way, for maybe 90 % of the action scenes. It made watching (Li), sorry.. standing watching (Li), meaningless, and the whole thing uninteresting.
(Isaiah Washington) was literally provocative as an actor or a character. The evil guy can be amusing sometimes. But here, oh my God. He was the worst stereotype ever as idiot, nuts, while being played by (Washington) as well. Btw, I'm one of the biggest non-fans of him!
(Anthony Anderson) was SO LOUD, and not in a good way. And you know what the worst part is? He's acting! His comedy, if we consider it so, is forced and totally unfunny. I hated him to the extent of completing the movie just to see him getting kicked hard. But unfortunately, (Li)'s kicks weren't that many, and not equal to the pain that this dude caused to me!
(Aaliyah), God bless her soul, wasn't strong enough. Especially with not one acting talent around her. She was good at places, and clueless at others. For one reason, I didn't see exactly why she fell in love with that taxi driver who can't speak English (hear him saying: "that wath a mistake"!). And everybody in the universe knew it: (Aaliyah) and (Li) have NO chemistry on-screen. He's like 40, and she's in her early twenties. He's like a bad movie, and she's like a good song!
The soundtrack is a piece of hell. If you don't like rap, then this is an exclusive long torment-to-death. However, as a fan or not, you must wonder why to crowd a movie with this number of songs? They didn't even express the lead's love, or compensate for its dramatic absence!
Sometimes the movie pushes you to laugh in the wrong place. For one moment, at the end, (Aaliyah)'s father shoots a guy for ten times, but he just wants not to die. I remember asking: "Did anybody turn to the comedy channel while I wasn't looking??!!".
And the cameo.. My man (DMX). He can't act or fight. I think he stipulated that they couldn't use his songs in the soundtrack unless he has a part. Or maybe they begged him to do it for supporting a movie starring some guy from Asia and a newcomer singer. Both ways, I hated his guts. Plus, I can't forget his immortal line that I will teach to my children, advising them to teach it to their children; "Guns don't kill people. People kill people!", I think this is the best thing I have ever heard since Dr. (King)'s speech of "I have a dream"!
Although there was a lovable try to show the lead characters as humans, not superheroes or lifeless creatures, but that wasn't done with the rest. I think whether you make it as a straight bang bang flick, or something at least as serious as the "Romeo" reference. This movie was in uneven middle. So I was like in sane-crazy, crazy-sane world all the time!
I enjoyed the scene in which (Li) was using (Aaliyah) to fight a girl, since he can't hit one. But why I think that this scene in specific was shot by different director?! However, still nothing was like that KILLER Chinese girl on the motorcycle. She was the real "good" thing about this movie. But they just killed her off after seconds of her appearance; as you see, this is a movie that doesn't want to be loved!
Finally, recall with me: (Li) is jumping, wholly illogically, to hit the ball, then its players. (Li) is escaping from the black evil guys while hitting them by unconvincing, rather idiot, moves; how to kick 6 men by rotating one complete horizontal circle in the air without holding to anything?! (Li) at the climax is jumping, as his opponent, at least 3 meters above the floor.. to stay there for a while during flapping their legs in the sky! Again without holding to ANYTHING! In case if you're asking confusedly like me, the answer for all of these moments' unforgettable oddity is one: the flying wires. And according to that, it won't be weird to watch a motorcycle that flies so slowly for half an hour above a car!
Movies like this raise the sales of the old martial arts movies. They were the real deal!
I have always thought of (Jet Li) as the unfunny version of (Jackie Chan). The man got one stony cold face. He can't smile. And even his fighting skills, that brought him to Hollywood in the first place, weren't shown here at all due to the tragic use of the flying wires. Owing to the producers' fear of any injury that may hurt their lead, or frankly delay their project, they used these odious wires, in so monotonous way, for maybe 90 % of the action scenes. It made watching (Li), sorry.. standing watching (Li), meaningless, and the whole thing uninteresting.
(Isaiah Washington) was literally provocative as an actor or a character. The evil guy can be amusing sometimes. But here, oh my God. He was the worst stereotype ever as idiot, nuts, while being played by (Washington) as well. Btw, I'm one of the biggest non-fans of him!
(Anthony Anderson) was SO LOUD, and not in a good way. And you know what the worst part is? He's acting! His comedy, if we consider it so, is forced and totally unfunny. I hated him to the extent of completing the movie just to see him getting kicked hard. But unfortunately, (Li)'s kicks weren't that many, and not equal to the pain that this dude caused to me!
(Aaliyah), God bless her soul, wasn't strong enough. Especially with not one acting talent around her. She was good at places, and clueless at others. For one reason, I didn't see exactly why she fell in love with that taxi driver who can't speak English (hear him saying: "that wath a mistake"!). And everybody in the universe knew it: (Aaliyah) and (Li) have NO chemistry on-screen. He's like 40, and she's in her early twenties. He's like a bad movie, and she's like a good song!
The soundtrack is a piece of hell. If you don't like rap, then this is an exclusive long torment-to-death. However, as a fan or not, you must wonder why to crowd a movie with this number of songs? They didn't even express the lead's love, or compensate for its dramatic absence!
Sometimes the movie pushes you to laugh in the wrong place. For one moment, at the end, (Aaliyah)'s father shoots a guy for ten times, but he just wants not to die. I remember asking: "Did anybody turn to the comedy channel while I wasn't looking??!!".
And the cameo.. My man (DMX). He can't act or fight. I think he stipulated that they couldn't use his songs in the soundtrack unless he has a part. Or maybe they begged him to do it for supporting a movie starring some guy from Asia and a newcomer singer. Both ways, I hated his guts. Plus, I can't forget his immortal line that I will teach to my children, advising them to teach it to their children; "Guns don't kill people. People kill people!", I think this is the best thing I have ever heard since Dr. (King)'s speech of "I have a dream"!
Although there was a lovable try to show the lead characters as humans, not superheroes or lifeless creatures, but that wasn't done with the rest. I think whether you make it as a straight bang bang flick, or something at least as serious as the "Romeo" reference. This movie was in uneven middle. So I was like in sane-crazy, crazy-sane world all the time!
I enjoyed the scene in which (Li) was using (Aaliyah) to fight a girl, since he can't hit one. But why I think that this scene in specific was shot by different director?! However, still nothing was like that KILLER Chinese girl on the motorcycle. She was the real "good" thing about this movie. But they just killed her off after seconds of her appearance; as you see, this is a movie that doesn't want to be loved!
Finally, recall with me: (Li) is jumping, wholly illogically, to hit the ball, then its players. (Li) is escaping from the black evil guys while hitting them by unconvincing, rather idiot, moves; how to kick 6 men by rotating one complete horizontal circle in the air without holding to anything?! (Li) at the climax is jumping, as his opponent, at least 3 meters above the floor.. to stay there for a while during flapping their legs in the sky! Again without holding to ANYTHING! In case if you're asking confusedly like me, the answer for all of these moments' unforgettable oddity is one: the flying wires. And according to that, it won't be weird to watch a motorcycle that flies so slowly for half an hour above a car!
Movies like this raise the sales of the old martial arts movies. They were the real deal!