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Unleashed
Part chop-socky, part gangster and part sentimen-tale, Unleashed is, against all expectations, far better than it has any right to be.
Unleashed is a pleasant surprise. I'm giving it a high mark because it far exceeded my expectations and shows how the genre should be done. Having told you it's good though, you may not benefit from that effect, so in a way I've ruined it for you ... sorry about that... please don't hold it against me ;) I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: A few scrapping scenes, as expected, plus a rather coy burst-in-on-woman-in-the-shower scene. To enjoy this film you should: enjoy chop-socky with feeling.
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Your commentsThe comments printed here are not necessarily the views of Forwardcharm!
Unleashed has got to be one of the best martial arts and acting movies I have ever seen (Lock, Stock and two Smoking meets Enter the Dragon). It's not going to appeal to everyone and indeed some of Jet's fans are not going like seeing their hero trashed by Bob Hoskins. This film has Jet Li cast in a role that requires both acting and martial arts, the later we all know he has in abundance but the former is usually left in the shade, we all got a glimpse of his acting in Kiss Of the Dragon and Unleashed seems to cross this in the same way as Bruce Lee and Game of Death where the West saw that acting as well as martial arts could come from the East. Killing and bloodshed have never been the goal of the arts but they have been glorified in this fashion by the West, Unleashed manages (much be the skill of Freeman) to bring humanity back into the frame and show that by kindness and compassion life can be changed. Unleashed is the story of an underdog who gets another chance ..... Enjoy the martial arts but enjoy the human side more!! To quote my old Sensei "Victory without battle is the best victory" (a lesson in my youth I had difficulty in learning)
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Jet Li stars as Danny, a slave brought up as a dog by violent gangland mobster Bob 'oskins, in full FAHKINELL mode.
When Danny's collar comes off, blood gets spilled, making him a very handy tool for big Bob's loan sharking racket.
Danny escapes his erstwhile owner and is befriended by blind teddy bear Morgan Freeman and his stepdaughter Kerry Condon.
This acting team is completely perfect - Bob 'oskins has never been better, his character could easily carry the
whole film on his own. Morgan Freeman can play these wise-old-nice-fuzzy-guy roles in his
sleep but still pulls off a blinder and newcomer (to me at least) Kerry Condon shows charisma and talent that belies her
slim CV. Even Jet Li, normally painfully one-dimensional, displays a remarkably sensitive and intelligent breadth that
I would never have imagined he had within him. I'm sure director Louis Leterrier had something to do with coaxing these
excellent performances from the actors, but you can't create talent from nothing. This is Leterrier's
second collaboration with Luc Besson, the first being the stylish but undeservedly unpopular The Transporter -
on the strength of this, I very much hope there will be many more such assocations in the future.
Unleashed is set in Glasgow, but you wouldn't know it as there's barely a Scotsman in sight, though Phyllida Law pops
up in an unexpected cameo. Glasgow is mentioned once in the supermarket, which also has a nicely placed shelf of
"Scott's Porage Oats" to rub it in, but other than those giveaways I would have sworn it was London all the way.
I reckon the Glasgow setting was an afterthought, because they've gone to the
trouble of replacing the registration numbers on the vehicles featured, but they didn't bother to find out how they work
over here, so they're in the wrong font and are mostly the wrong years for the cars. Who cares though, right?
Here we have a rare combination of great acting, entertaining fight scenes and a sharp script, including cracking tidbits
such as Bob growling, "stop breavin' dahn my farkin ear" to his henchman while listening at a door in the middle of a scrap.
Talking of the fight scenes, they feel refreshingly original. Spurning the Jackie Chan style highly technical and
almost dancey routines, these are more
earthy smack-his-head-into-the-floor sets, while still showing off Jet Li's fighting skills and the
director's presentational flair. The punch noises sound more real - though I'm sure they
just found a new fruit to smack the hell out of (I'm going for mango) - and the whole feel of the violence is
directed towards plausibility rather than coolness. Well maybe there's a little flamboyance in there, but it all
feels cohesive. Jet Li even makes bish-bash-bosh noises when he punches
someone, which is quite funny for a while. Unfortunately some clichés still remain, such as the "slash the shirt /
look down in astonishment / everybody pause to let it sink in / carry on fighting" sequence, and some of the wire
work is appalling, looking more like a Wild West show than a 2005 movie. We're way beyond the days of yanking
someone backwards on a piece of string to show they've been kicked. It looks pitiful nowadays, I have no idea why
film-makers keep using it.
