Rating: 
Summary: A hysterically funny film for the whole family!
Review: Before Jet Li started breaking into the American market of action films with "The One", "Romeo Must Die", "Kiss of the Dragon", etc, he was pretty much revered overseas with Fist of Legend and numerous other martial-arts films which I can't remember already. Like many other martial-arts films before it, Black Mask suffers from the "American Tampering" syndrome. They feel that instead of subtitles, which we all know has successfully worked with such recent hit films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and last year's "Hero", they take American voices and insert them into the mouths of the foreign actors. Black Mask, aside from being tampered with, is still a bland, lackluster film. If you see it just for the fighting, which in my opinion isn't very much compared to, let's say, "Enter the Dragon", then that's all you get, but I thought every aspect of it was cheap, uninspired and well, just plain funny! The main villain is a spitting image of Yoko Ono for crying out loud! Who keeps his sunglasses on no matter what during the scene's last "intense" fight scene! How can you get any better than that in such a cheesefest? Jet Li's fighting skills are just as undermined as his character's relationship to cop buddy Rock, which I may add manages to emerge from not one, but TWO explosions, at close range, with barely a scratch and just a band aid over his brow! I could go all out on how bad it is, but I won't since it wouldn't be productive whatsoever. My advice? RENT IT as a comedy and DON'T buy it as an action/martial arts ride. Take in mind that this is my opinion. 2 stars.
AHHHHH!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Good pre-Matrix action film
Review: "Black Mask" is one of several Hong Kong action movies that immediately predates the Matrix trilogy, and influenced the trilogy on a superficial level. It stars Jet Li (who's done much better things) as a superpowered vigillante, and features lots of camera trickery and wirework. The characters tend to wear black trenchcoats, fight kung-fu in midair, and several important showdowns occur on rooftops in the rain (just like in "The Matrix")! I enjoyed this fun film a lot, due to its extremely fast pace and incredibly clever stunts. I would recommend, however, other Jet Li films such as "Once Upon A Time in China" and "Romeo Must Die" if you are new to Jet Li's movies.
Rating: 
Summary: A film so good it could only have been made in Hong Kong
Review: Sometimes I wonder why American studios even try to make action-packed martial arts thrillers; they just cannot compete with the great films churned out by Hong Kong studios. Black Mask is an underappreciated, high octane, exhilarating motion picture. How could it not be, as it combines the untouchable martial arts skills of Jet Li, the directorial genius the great Tsui Hark, the fight choreography of the renowned Yuen Woo Ping, the comparatively high Hong Kong budget of ten million dollars, and virtually nonstop action? Granted, the film was given an audio makeover on its way to America, but the dubbing is very well done and the hip-hop soundtrack keeps your blood pumping even when no one is fighting. This is not to say I would have preferred to see the film in its original format, with subtitles, but Black Mask delivers more bang for the buck than anything coming out of American studios. Originally released in 1996 as Hak Hap, this movie made the jump to America three years later, just after Jet Li had made his American debut in Lethal Weapon IV. The film does have a comic-book superhero feel to it, thanks largely to the Kato-like black mask the hero wears, but the storyline is actually quite impressive and easy to follow (although the master plan of the baddies seems a little out-there) . Some reviewers don't seem to care for Black Mask, but I thought it was terrific.Jet Li plays Michael, a former member of an elite, genetically enhanced fighting group known as the 701 Squad; after helping his fellow soldiers escape, he wants nothing more to do with killing. Now adopting the name Simon, he is a mild-mannered librarian perfectly content with his new life. Then the killings start. Someone is offing all of the drug lords in Hong Kong, which doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing, even to Simon's buddy Inspector "Rock" Sheck (Ching Wan Lau). Still, the detective has to put an end to the carnage and becomes the lead man on the case. Simon realizes that his old 701 Squad is carrying out the attacks, and he takes action in order to save his friend Rock. No one else can stop these bad guys, so Simon dons a black mask to hide his identity, and starts laying the smacketh down from one side of the island to the other. The action never stops, and Tsui Hark does more with ten million dollars than most filmmakers could do with ten times that amount. I'm talking carnage, people - huge explosions, gunfire by the truckload, and incredibly wicked fighting - oftentimes in the most precarious of places. At least half of the police force must get killed as this movie progresses, and the bad guys fare even worse; in one scene, the stiffs are stacked up one on top of the other. Hark is a genius when it comes to presenting incredible action in the most unusual of ways and from the most unconventional of angles, and Jet Li is at his very best, exhibiting the smoothness and rapid-fire movements of the Wushu style he mastered long ago. The supporting characters also bring a lot to the movie, from the delightful love interest Tracy Lee (Karen Mok) to genetically engineered superbabe Cailyn (Francoise Yip) to hard-nosed cop and all-around tough guy "Rock" to the super-evil Commander Hung (Kong Lung) (who, for reasons I can't explain, dresses like Ozzy Osbourne). With a greater than average gore quotient, Black Mask has everything I want in a martial arts film.
Rating:
Summary: must see!!!
Review: this is the one of the best muvis i ever wached. this is a must see!!
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