bradleygranz Romeo must die was an awesome movie awesome fight scenes jet li is awesome in this movie

SnoopyStyle Asian gang leader's son Po Sing is killed which could potential start a war with the black gang. Mac (Isaiah Washington) is gang leader Isaak O'Day (Delroy Lindo) second-in-command. Maurice (Anthony Anderson) is guarding Trish O'Day (Aaliyah). Han (Jet Li) learns of the news and escapes from Hong Kong prison. He arrives in Oakland stealing a cab and Trish just happens to catch his ride. Han investigates and finds a murky land deal.This has a potentially good idea. Both Jet Li and Aaliyah show some acting skills but they don't have romantic chemistry together. There is no real heat in the relationship. Also shouldn't Han be called Romeo? It would make life so much easier. The story is even more complicated than Shakespeare. The Vancouver locations lack a certain edge. Jet Li and his friends get in some good action. Actually, this movie may have worked better if it gives up on the Romeo and Juliet romance. It should make Trish an equal partner in the investigation.

owenhanleymail 'Romeo Must Die' is a film so loosely based on its original Shakespearean source material, 'Romeo and Juliet', that I believe that their relationship to one another does disserves to both. The plot of the film focuses around two rival gangs vying for more money than the other and how this affects the main characters Han and Trish. The rivalry takes the form of plans to develop a sports stadium. This is easily the least engaging part of the story. From boring golf meetings to uninteresting characters this unique plot point offers simply a backdrop for the events of the film. This is a flaw the film carries throughout the story whilst I can confidently say that the characters are the saving grace of the movie. Unfortunately they rarely develop engaging drama for the characters to be involved in. The major issue I had with the film was pacing. This movie definitely would have been aided by heavy cutting. Roughly the first twenty minutes, in my opinion, are completely unnecessary and I believe the movie should have begun with the prison scene. Not only is this the first time we are introduced to our protagonist Han but his break out is the most interesting action scenes in the entire film. Arguably one of the best I've ever seen in film but it is heavily truncated but terribly executed exposition; and when I say that it was the best action scene in the film that actually holds a lot of weight because this movie is abundant with action. Obviously with Jet Li as the main actor you should set your expectations at a certain level but this movie goes far and beyond that. Action after action after action with the bare minimum of story during the first half leaves the viewer feeling disconnected. It would have been of far greater value to cut some of the fight scenes and replace them with more interaction between Han and Trish, the female protagonist, especially since the chemistry between the two was very palpable. As stated previously the characters and their relationships are what I found to be the peaks of this film. The three core relationships in the film, Han and Trish, Han and his father, and Trish and her father, all hit the correct notes. From the flirtatious nature of the protagonists to Han's damaged past with his father the actors are very crucial in the portrayal and the strong response they encourage. Whilst I know the romance plot is very important to this movie I particularly found the conversations between Trish and her father Isaak the most powerful. Isaak is the leader of a mob family but is not blind to the realities of his world. He is making plans to secure a legal income based future for his children. This comes to a front when Isaak's son and Trish's older brother is murdered. Isaak only wishes to help his children and whilst Trish initially blames him for her brother's death she doesn't play the stereotypical spoilt child. She instead recognises what her father is trying to do and agrees to trust him. Every time these two interacted I felt as if the film should have dropped the unnecessary ties to Shakespeare's writing and had a larger focus on these very dynamic characters. However, that's not the film we have and it leaves us with the relationship between Trish and Isaak and my greatest take away from the film. The third also falls apart in minor ways. Firstly due to the pacing issues it feels a long time coming and as result I was thinking about it more than I should have; this lead to me realising the slight twist ending where the henchmen of both of the families would betray their respective superior. I feel like this was supposed to hit a lot harder than it did but I feel like it was communicated and foreshadowed far to on the nose. Perhaps this also on the actors playing the roles, especially the Mac character because from the second he appears on screen you can't help but question his motives. This is contrasted nicely against Han's father who we are ambiguous about until he opens up to his son. However, before that moment he genuinely could have gone either way showing shades of good and bad; and coincidentally that is how I would also describe this film. There was huge potential here and the execution is done very well in regards to the primary characters. Unfortunately pretty much everything outside of that from the music, to the editing falls flat or worse. Overall I see Romeo Must Die as a platform for the main actors and the screenwriters and bar that it is a lackluster action film with untapped potential.

The_Film_Cricket When Jackie Chan faces off against five or six tough guys at the same time what makes him so much fun to watch is the way he beats them up with chairs, ladders, pool cues or steering wheels and needs no visual tricks and no special effects. His talent is that he does it all himself.That was my first problem with 'Romeo Must Die' which doesn't star Chan but Hong Kong action star Jet Li and when he faces five guys, special effects allow him to suspend himself in the air while fighting. He needs help from the special effects artists.This trick did work in the 'The Matrix' because we knew that we were inside a virtual reality world. But to watch a guy do this on a football field in a real setting whirling around in the air and kicking people just looks silly.The story doesn't fair much better. It's borrows one idea from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet when Li travels to America and falls for an African-American woman (Aaliyah) whose father (Delroy Lindo) was responsible for his brother's death in Hong Kong. The two lovers don't generate much chemistry because every moment alone is interrupted by a violent encounter. Li plays Han, who was once a cop in the far east. His detective work leads him to a plot by her father to build a stadium by threatening local merchants to sign over their businesses – or else. Mostly the merchants fall under the 'or else' category and for some reason there doesn't seem to be any investigation into their deaths. Their deaths are quick, violent and there are plenty of them.Li is probably a fine actor in the right movie. He has a genteel face and a calm manner. But those attributes are hidden here in a noisy movie full of broken glass, bone-crunching and an over-zealous rap soundtrack.Maybe I was concentrating on the story too much. In Chan's films I forget the hacknyed story mostly because I go to see his flying fists. 'Romeo Must Die' is a very violent action movie, so violent that is distracts from anything else even when there isn't much else to see.Final Note: Why is it that latest film versions of 'Hamlet' seem to be new and inventive (the best being Branagh's 1996 film) while the latest versions of 'Romeo and Juliet' seem to be tired and silly. Mr. Branagh, perhaps you should look into this.