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Cradle 2 the Grave (Full Screen Edition)

Cradle 2 the Grave (Full Screen Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Like action flicks? C2G does not disappoint!
Review: Popular rapper DMX has teamed up in an earlier martial arts film with Steven Segal, and has stepped his role in action films up a notch with martial arts superstar Jet Li, who has (to my mind)established himself as one of the greatest martial arts stars of our time.

DMX's role is Tony Fait, a smooth (but somewhat excitable)master thief. He and his crew (including the lovely Gabrielle Union and his partner-in- crime from the afore-referenced "Exit Wounds" Anthony Anderson) break into a diamond exchange, and steal a cache of black diamonds. They were created by the Taiwanese government, and when agitated (kinda like what we saw as the principal weapon in the fifth Bond flick "Diamonds Are Forever") unleash incredible energy. They were originally stolen by the real bad guy Ling (Mark Dacascos), who intends to auction them off to a room full of worldwide nogoodnicks. Ling then abducts DMX's baby girl to ransom them back. And as they say, it is ON.

You cannot have these guys together without great fight scenes, and this movie does not disappoint. Li has an incredible nonchalance about himself, and actually fights (and easily handles, of course) his first few adversaries with one hand in his pocket! He has to use both hands, though, when he ends up in the middle of a brawl with a crew of Ultimate Fighters. Of course, he can, and does, without raising much of a sweat (but he does get around to tossing around a midget as a "weapon").

Just as he did in Exit Wounds, Tom Arnold provides some comic relief (among his best lines: "I cannot read Chinese, but I know cop in every language").

Forget about the folks who dog out this movie. The acting is just fine. This script does not call for Meryl Streep, and neither is it incredibly thought provoking screenplay. It does not need to be. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is, a slammin', ultra-violent, retribution filled, sexy action film. While I thought at first that the one-handed fight scenes were a bit much, as another reviewer noted, it does show another side of the virtuosity of Jet Li. And I don't really care whether Kelly Hu (bad-guy Ling's equally ultra-fine sidekick) would have beat down Gabrielle Union in two seconds "in real life". The two of them on the screen is worth seeing, in my humble opinion.

Like action movies? Then this one is for you. Enjoy it for what it is, and you will have spent a great ninety minutes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: very kool
Review: this is one hell of a movie. it takes the good qualities of all his previous movies and excludes the bad ones. His chinese movies were action packed with awesome martial arts, but with out any cars, guns, or quads it didnt seem like "now". then all of jet li's american films focused too much on talk and not enough kung fu. And then cradle 2 the grave comes along, and thats when everythin changed.
Jet Li plays Su, his typical bad@$$ yet soft spoken charachter. Of course theres no one that can even touch him in a fight until he meets his old adversary known as Ling. This all leads up to a fight between Su and Ling over some very important black stones (not telling why theyre important).
Dmx plays tony fait, a gangster who gets mixed up in the action by stealing the black stones for someone. despite earlier dudes dissin the acting of Dmx, i really dont see why hes so bad. i mean that he has the easy role of a gangster, and being a rapper he has plenty of practice swearing.
since cradle was directed by the same dude as romeo must die and exit wounds, you know theres gonna be anthony anderson and tom arnold, theyre the two real providers of comedy in the movie.
the real reason this movie is great is obviously because of the action, some great scenes like the fight club include real untimate fighters. this movie is packed with that sort of stuff.
the only reason i minused a star is the dvd itself. the special features are junk.theres a dmx music video (edited [BOO])some commentary, plus more boring stuff. nevertheless, this is a great movie. very recomended

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It was ok
Review: This movie was just ok because the the movie is action packed. The reason i gave this movie three stars is that when gabrielle union was getting undressed they didn't show the t*tt*es which was a dissapointment since this movie is rated R. Anyway this movie is still good

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: NOT A BAD ACTION FILM, BUT..;....
Review: Okay, let me start by saying that I love DMX (music and movies alike) as well as Jet Li. But, this film took me back to EXIT WOUNDS. For example: the cast. DMX, Anthony Anderson, Tom Arnold, and Drag-On. Another example: the producer and director. Example # 3: the ending credits with Anderson and Arnold. Was that necessary? The action scenes were cool, but, the ending took me back to ROMEO MUST DIE (hence, the ring of fire).

Some people have been very critical on the acting. Look, this is an action movie. It relies more on action and violence more than the acting. What more do want? DMX can act. Hello, has anyone seen BELLY? He just need better material to work with. I'm sure that as his film career progresses, he'll be receiving better material to work with. Jet Li's acting isn't that bad, neither. The one-hand-in-pocket fight scenes are original and cool. Drag-On (when's your next album coming out?) had more screen time in this film than what he had on EXIT WOUNDS. He was cool, too.

The plot may seem generic to others, but, it's still somewhat above your average action movie plot. The comic relief, although performed by the same characters from EXIT WOUNDS, is still somewhat fresh. The villains are pretty hard core in this film as well.

Aside from a few gripes about this film, it's still a well put-together ACTION FLICK. I saw it on it's opening weekend at the box office twice (on the same day) and am now the proud owner of the DVD, thank you very much.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: So it has a generic plot does it?
Review: Tell me a film that doesn't have a generic plot these days. Exactly who is paying attention to the plot when you've got the gorgeous Jet Li & DMX to eye up? (And lets throw in Gabrielle Union and Kelly Hu for the guys out there) So the plot's been done before, it's still interesting!

This film is kinda special to me, I won't explain why here, it's kinda dorky, but what I will say is that I'm glad to have it on DVD, so I can watch it again, and relive certain things!

There are some great actors in this - alongside DMX and Jet Li, Gabrielle Union departs from her usual teen rom com roles, and gets to really sink her teeth into a decent role (along with DMX!) Tom Arnold adds the comedy to the film, and Anthony Anderson plays Tommy, who is so funny - especially when he's trying to be camp!

Jet Li is great (and cute) in all his films. Most of the film he seemed to stroll along with his hand in his pocket, and seemed to (casually, as if it was no big deal) attack the bad guys. And the worried look on his face when he's faced with a lot of bad guys - no problemo, he just takes his hand out his pocket!

What the black diamonds/stones storyline did seem to fall to the side quite a bit throughout the film, concentrating most of the time on DMX's little daughter in the movie, who acts [good]!

There's a very funny scene, which plays underneath the credits. Tom Arnold (Archie) and Anthony Anderson (Tommy) are talking about making a film about what they've just experienced, and who's going to play them etc. It's so funny, as they come out with these outrageous suggestions!

What's great about this movie, is the very rare use of guns. None of the "good guys" use them, they prefer to use their hands/feet to attack the bad guys. So many films these days really overuse guns, and it gets tiresome after a while, so it's great to see a film that tosses guns to one side.

This film is great, and you'll be left with an adrenaline rush afterwards. You will be punching and kicking in your seat!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not Jet's best
Review: I only saw this because of Jet Li. I'm disappointed that he doesn't get his own movies. This was an alright film, but Jet wasn't at him best, thus the 2 star rating.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: WELL, IT'S BETTER THAN ROMEO MUST DIE
Review: AN AGENT [JET LI] AND A THIEF [DMX] TRY TO KEEP SOME DIAMONDS FROM FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF A CRIME KINGPIN [MARK DECASCOS]. WELL, I'LL ADMIT IT, I'M NOT REALLY A BIG FAN OF JET LI. BUT, THIS MOVIE WAS AT LEAST MODERATELY ENTERTAINING. THE MOVIE DOES AT LEAST HAVE A FEW GOOD FIGHT SEQUENCES AND IT DOES HAVE SOME FUNNY MOMENTS. SURE, THIS AIN'T NO MARTIAL ARTS EPIC, BUT I GUESS IT'D DO FOR MARTIAL ARTS ADDICTS.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Cradle To Trash
Review: I cheated.I did not rent or buy the DVD or VHS but instead saw C2G on Cinemax this past Saturday night and I am so glad.This movie was trash.Someone said somewhere that it was a generic plot that had been done before,but I think that was overly generous,C2G reminded me of some of the no name actor action adventure flicks I watched on Saturday afternoon on TV as a kid,except they were better done.The plot was not even close to being believeable,which in and of itself would not have been fatal,but it then it tried to make up for it by way too much action done by horrible acting.I have never heard of the majority of the cast,with the exception of Kelly Hu and Tom Arnold,and I can see why,none of them can act.They brought little life to one dimensional stock characters and they should profusely thank Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold for bringing a welcome comedic element which made the film a little bearable.Special disses go out to Jet Li and Kelly Hu.Jet,you're not an actor.You delivered your lines with about as much passion as someone reciting a weather report.The closest I recommend you get to a camera is selling them in Hong Kong.Kelly,you can't act either.I think the one dimensionality of the characters and the the poor acting were demonstrated in rather exmeplary fashion by your portrayal of Sona.I have seen you in films and TV series over the years,and while I'll freely admit you are beautiful,you should go back to modeling and selling cream cheese.Your acting skills have not improved as demonstrated by the roles you get,and now you are about my age (36) so your career is just about over anyway.Sorry,spoiler alert,but Kelly's best scene was when she was killed at the end when she had the contents of a MAC 10 emptied into her by her own hand.BTW,Kelly,the outfit they had you wear at the warehouse made you look more chubby than slinky and made your butt look big,so if if you are noshing on Philly Cream Cheese between takes take some advice and stay away from it.Ok,just so no one thinks I'm a Kelly Hu hater,I'll say the same thing for Gabrielle Union,very pretty but no acting ability,looks are good but you need some talent too.If you just like action adventure and don't care about plot or believeability,watch it.But after I finished watching I felt like screaming that I wanted my hour and 45 minutes of my life back,so you were warned.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A terrible waste of talent
Review: I'm not a fan of most rap and I'm not a fan of the recent trend of combining rap themes into kung fu movies. I was surprised then, to find myself thinking DMX was watchable in this movie. To say he's a better actor than rapper is really more a comment on his rapping than his acting abilities, but he does pull off a decent job.

But this movie fails by putting him in the starring role, and by annoying me with the terribly unfunny Tom Arnold and Anthony Anderson. Take the space that they occupy and use it to allow Mark Dacascos to show his talents. He comes across as truly frightening in a couple scenes as the villainous Ling and the movie would have benefited from him being onscreen more.

It's extremely frustrating that the action in this film only includes him minimally. Take away the UFC fight scene, put him in there and you have something that would have truly impressed. The fight between him and Jet at the end is too short. The DVD could have at least included more behind the scenes footage of their fight but opted instead to allow the viewer to see the same fight from different angles. While moderately entertaining, it falls short of giving watchers what they want.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: mediocre entertaining action movie
Review: It's a bit like a sequel to Romeo must die with almost the same actors. DMX and Jet Li do a convincing job, but it lacks the atmosphere, tension and effects of Romeo must die. You almost have a same end-scene with Jet Li fighting in the fire - but somehow you never see Jet Li's artistry in the same way as in Romeo must die. The storyline is rather average and there aren't as many special effects as in Romeo must die - or it simply doesn't catch your attention that much.


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