Action Movie FREAK .com

ROMEO MUST DIE

(2000) Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak

Jet Li's speed and martial arts skills, multiple explosions, fist fights, gun fights, gnarly kills, a motorcycle/car chase, and a CGI x-ray gimmick (first seen in "The Street Fighter") deliver action in "Romeo Must Die" like a bullet to the chest! When Jet beats up four prison guards while handcuffed and hanging upside down by one leg, you know you're in for some great fight scenes. Producer Joel Silver and Director Andrzej Bartkowiak (fresh off doing "Lethal Weapon 4" together with Jet) pair up with Corey Yuen (as martial arts choreographer—he would go on do the "Transporter" series) and John Gaeta's Manex Visual Effects company (they invented "bullet time" for "The Matrix") to make a series of seven impressive and entertaining beat-downs in this atypical anti-action-movie-hero action movie.

Jet Li burst onto the American movie screen as the bad guy in "Lethal Weapon 4". If looks could kill, Jet's icy stare and sex appeal alone were a lethal weapon. His fighting skills were so fast and fierce, they had to ask him to slow his movements down so Mel Gibson could keep up, and they had to use both Mel and Danny Glover at the end to try to take him out, otherwise it wouldn't have been believable—it still wasn't. Jet Li KICKED ASS! As evil and intense as Jet was in that movie, he's sweet and low key as the lead actor in this one. "Romeo Must Die" has almost none of the typical trash-talking braggadocio action movies are known for. Li comes off as a Regular Joe, but with mad skills and a grudge. He speaks very little, but each time he is forced to fight, seems to easily win against four to eight guys, and improvises all kinds of weapons and defensive uses for ordinary objects without killing anyone. (The severed-fire-hose-as-a-kusari-gama scene includes a backwards airborne shot through his legs! Just a little phallic—Way to use your 'hose'!)

The typical action movie bad asses are the bad guys, and here it's not good thing. The first time you see them, they're wearing long jackets and sunglasses. Compared to Jet Li at 5' 6", Russell Wong as "Kai" is 6', Isaiah Washington as "Mac" is 6' 1", and Trish's father Delroy Lindo as "Isaak" is 6' 4". Everyone but Li thinks he's the shit. Mac and Kai dress to impress, walk with a swagger, and wear shades like they're too cool to take them off at night or inside. This movie is chock full of swinging dicks with fancy clothes, fancy cars, and fancy ideas of who they are ("serious façade". They're ambitious, greedy, and amoral, and the movie seems to say that these traits will cause your downfall. Most of the mouthing off comes from the comic relief Anthony Anderson who's full of himself, not afraid to show it, and always stealing the show. My favorite moment is when Mac (great name) tries to mack on Trish, gets shot down and storms out. On his way out he has to pass by Anthony Anderson as "Maurice" aka "Moron" who mocks him:  "Hey Mac, you're so smooove with the ladies, baby!"  This may have been a Jet Li movie, but it was also The Anthony Anderson Show. And what's an action movie without a wise-cracking smart ass?

There is surprisingly little exploitation and misogyny in this action movie. Trish, the lead character is such a good girl, that the bad girls (there are three) seem to be there only to show that the men they are with are immature losers. Colin, Trish's older brother, and his girlfriend are smoking pot, but only the girlfriend is undressed (in a bra and panties with an open robe). When someone knocks, she answers the door with the robe hanging open. The movie actually seems pro-good girl as the message is that a good girl is worth fighting for and protecting, and that bad things happen to shallow, stupid men who hang out with loose women.

The story is missing some sympathy to me. I wondered why the young Han and Po were floating—how they got there? What was the father's crime that landed Han in jail to protect his father and his little brother? Why did they then leave for America? What happened to the mother?

If the father abandoned the boys until it suited him to take take off to America with Po,
promising Han if he went to jail for them, he would take care of his little brother,
it would have seemed more relatable when Han hears that his brother is dead (shaking spoon scene) as a broken promise.  As he starts to investigate, I think if they did a better job of showing Han suspected his father (they hinted at it once in the conversation they have where Han's father tries to cast suspicious on Isaak O'Day), then it would have been more suspenseful to see him prove it.

It's not enough that Jackie is avenging his brother's death.  If the father had been shown to be uncaring, maybe in contrast to a caring mother (who Han a promise to to take care of his little brother),
 

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