Romeo Must Die

Rating:
Summary: Jet Li & Aaliyah
Review: I'm a big Jet Li fan, and I like the music of Aaliyah, so I had to own "Romeo Must Die", this is Li's first starring role in a movie and his second American movie. Li plays Han Sing who escapes a Hong Kong prison to avenge the death of his younger brother in America. The fight scenes, though nothing compared to his Hong Kong movies, wasn't bad, better than most American martial arts films. If you want to see Jet Li at his best, I recommend "Fist of Legend", "The Taichi Master", "The Swordsman II", "Once Upon A Time In China I, II, III", "The Bodyguard From Beijing", and "Fong Sai Yuk I & II". I was pleased to see Russell Wong in this movie, I liked his mini series "Vanishing Son" and his small, but memorable role in "The Joy Luck Club". I was a bit disappointed that Wong didn't have a bigger role in "Romeo Must Die". I hope Jet Li would make more films in America, hopefully with various soundtracks, and more intense fight scenes. With her first and last starring role, I thought that r&b beauty Aaliyah played Trish O'Day superbly and I was saddened to hear of her death in the Bahamas. Rest in peace Aaliyah.

Rating:
Summary: Oddball and unsatisfying
Review: A strange major-league vehicle for martial arts master Jet Li, who has done far better films than this and no doubt will again. Retelling of "Romeo and Juliet" using Asian and black gangs is plot-heavy without being convincing -- romance between Li and Aaliyah seems more obligatory and pencilled-in than driven by real need or desire. Worse, Li's soft-spoken, modest dramatic presence makes him seem far too demure to be the center of attention. Li's fighting is also showcased only minimally and is distractingly assisted with wire stunts and other gimmickry. Another case of a movie that's all concept and no execution. Why was this movie shot before it was written?

Rating:
Summary: Dud
Review: Jet's talents are not evident in this film. I believe that they are best displayed with little to no special effects. the 'Matrix' style effects used in this film were completely out of place. It also annoyed me that the film tried to be a showcase for aaliyah or whatever her name is. BIG LETDOWN.

you want good jet li fights..... buy Fist of Legend. a bruce lee re-make that is very well done.

Rating:
Summary: At least worth one viewing
Review: I'm going to start out by saying that for the most part I did enjoy this movie. There is entertainment here, and a fair part of the movie moves along pretty good, but you feel as you watch it that it could be better. And one way it could have been better, at least in my opinion, would have been to have had more of Jet Li and Aaliyah in the movie. A movie that has a title Romeo Must Die, even though that's not Li's name in the movie, still should have more of the stars in it. It's when the two of them are together that we get the best scenes in the movie.

The two main characters never actually generate a love interest, too much else is going on for that to happen, but they are interesting in the way they interact with one another. Two of my favorite scenes are the ones where Han(Li) used Trish(Aaliyah) as a weapon to battle a woman because he won't hit her himself, and the one where he gets talked into playing football with some of Trish's fathers henchmen.

The main problem of the movie is that it gets bogged down when Han and Trish aren't in it. That's not to say that some of the other actors don't do a fair job in their roles, but the plot doesn't really support them. The plot seems to swim in and out of focus a lot, leaving you confused by exactly who's doing what and why.

I have to finish by stating that I haven't seen that many of Li's movies yet. Before this one the only other one I had seen was The Black Mask. Just by watching these two movies, I can tell Li can fight, and want to see more of him. I just wish they had let him open up a little more in this movie. There were some decent fight scenes, one of the better ones in my book being the one where he is strung up by one leg while fighting, but I was still wishing for more. Maybe next time.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie. I don't know what anyone else was expecting.
Review: This is a fun movie. Buy it.

Ok, now to address the whining of the HARDCORE fans. Here I am standing the minority saying that this is one of the best Jet Li movies I've seen in a long time. The plot breezes along, there are no long song montages that get sickening in most Hong Kong movies, Hip Hop is better than that horrible canto-pop you hear in Hong Kong movies any day. Aaliyah is gorgeous and I don't care if her acting is fairly idiotic, while Delroy Lindo brings a nice understated fury to his role.

Story line. You would think that when they have the big fight in the bar at the opening montage complete with DMX acting the "Prince" that this would be fairly close to Romeo and Juliet. Nope. Doesn't happen. Instead the whole Romeo & Juliet plot gets 86'd with only the barest scrape of it surviving (warring families, two lovers from both families) completely submerged in a everyone kills everyone else over waterfront development story. The families aren't even at war, it turns out.

Fight sequences. Jet Li uses wires. No, it's not pure Jet Li like in Fist Legend. It's also not pure Jet Li like in Bodyguard from Bejing, but then again that movie is pure offal. Still it's amazing what Jet Li can do with wires as opposed to Keanu Reeves who just fakes a martial art style.

Of course, most of Jet Li's movies are with wires. Swordsman II, Fong Sai Yuk, New Legend of Shaolin. Usually these are historical epics, but still - if the hero doesn't fly, what's the point in practicing martial arts? Most of the reviews sound like the people saw Lethal Weapon 4, rented out Fist of Legend and neglected to watch anything else from Hong Kong. Effects and wires are used all the time, and anyone who doesn't think so should watch Stormriders a movie which has so many effects that you almost think that you are playing a video game instead of watching a movie.

So this is a great movie. Great music. Aaliyah is beautiful. Jet Li is cool and he's always been more of an actor than a martial artist. Confused plotline but no problems. Best of all, it hold up on repeat viewings, which is not something that you can say for 99% of Hong Kong movies.

Rating:
Summary: I am not a big Jet Li fan...
Review: but I know what a good movie is. This is not one. Although it is tauted as "From the producer of The MAtrix" don't be fooled. The two have one simularity: Wall-walking. The comic-relief is horrible, and I was bored with the plot. "Black Mask" was much better.

Rating:
Summary: Jet Li shows promise in America
Review: I saw this movie, and I didn't know what to expect. I thought Black Mask was terrible, especially with the Tacked on rap music that had nothing to do with the film. Much like Rush Hour this movies hook is not so much Jet Li, but really Aliyah. I do have alot of view points when it comes to this movie. Its watchable, with some neat new effects, but its not great. Especially compared to Li's older films. First and foremost I would reccomend any of the "Jet Li Collection films" such as Fist of Legend and the Enforcer. And on a lower level, Twin Warriors.

Now onto this movie. The story was actually very good, the supporting cast of lesser known actors pulled through. Especially Aliyahs family. I mention this only cause typically the background characters aren't much, and in these kind of films add nothing to the film. This wasn't one of those cases. It TOUCHED on the Romeo and Juliet story, but after that it didn't feel much like it at all. Jet Li and Aliyah had a great chemistry that was NOT ruined by a cheesy "love at first site." Infact there is little to no, love story at all. Much better then the Mission Impossible 2 "love story." Which totally ruined that movie.

The martial arts, like most American-Chinese martial arts films, aren't even close to the REAL talents of Jet Li. I wasn't surprised cause until Shangai Noon, Jackie Chan got the same treatment. The few scenes were neat, but nothing special. There are too few "WOW" moments. The neat "bone crunching" effect was very interesting and original. (If you don't know what I mean, you'll understand when you see the film) But once again, there wasn't enough of it, and it just made you wanna see more of it.

Above the negative, the movie DID entertain. I don't know if that was enough for me to BUY it. But I will wanna see it at least 2 o 3 more times. Jet li shows alot of promise in American Films. I hope his next film will rely more on HIM then other actors.

Rating:
Summary: Much Better Than I Expected
Review: This movie was much better than I expected. I was expecting some totally hip-hop musical with some fight scenes thrown in here and there. Instead, it keep me interested from the beginning to the end. I think the movie was very well cast and that everyone fit perfectly into their roles. I have also become a fan of Jet Li's. All in all, it was a very good film.

Rating:
Summary: As Expected - Very Bad
Review: This movie is too long for a simple story plot about two rival triad groups trying to take revenage of each other. Basically, each move and each plot is so predictable and too much fighting action that was not even needed for the scene.

Also the part about HK prison, it is not even anything close to the HK prison condition. The movie is giving people wrong impression that HK prison condition is so brutal and inhuman, esp, the part when Jet was hung by his leg and the prison guards were to hit him to punish him for fighting with the guards. The prison environment in this film would give viewers misconception that HK prison is dirty, not hygenic, or crowded. But, these are not true at all.

All in all, this is one of the worst on DVD i have seen so far, and not really recommend you to watch at all.

Rating:
Summary: If at first you don't succeed, never direct again Bartkowiak
Review: Just think of your classic Romeo & Juliet story, but with African Americans and Asians as the feuding families. International action star Jet Li plays Han (Romeo), an imprisoned police officer and son of an Asian Mobster. Han finds out that his brother has been murdered. So out of anger, Han unrealistically escapes from jail. Next thing you know, he's in the U.S.! Hip-Hop artist Aaliyah plays Trish (Juliet), daughter of the African American Mobster, Isaak O'Day (played by Delroy "stop eating my sesame cake" Lindo).

I thought the first half of the movie was boring, and didn't quite pick up until the second half. The short times that Jet Li and Aaliyah were together was great! It brought some life to the story. Except that their relationship was more like a Duo-Type, like Chow Yun Fat and Myra Sorvino in The Replacement Killers. It wasn't romantic or intimate. What, do they feel that America isn't ready yet to see an Asian guy kiss an African American or Caucasian woman yet?

This was Andrzej Bartkowiak's (Cinematographer for movies such as Lethal Weapon 4 and Speed) directorial debut. I didn't care for his directing so much. I thought the editing could have been done a lot better. I'd get into certain action scenes, then the next thing you know, it keeps changing camera angles. It would completely ruin the action scenes. Also, the action scenes were shot WAY TOO CLOSE! You could barely see what's going on! I like Jet Li, and the movies he's done in the past. He did a GREAT job in this movie as well, but the directing and editing was AWFUL!Overall it was an okay movie, but it wasn't as great as everyone said it was.