| The Word on the Street is... ROMEO MUST DIE Release Date: 13/10/00 Certificate: 15 Official Website Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak Producers: Joel Silver & Jim Van Wyck Screenplay: Eric Bernt & John Jarrel |
| Despite a huge back-catalogue of movies dating back to 1979, Jet Li only made his Hollywood debut in 1998's Lethal Weapon 4. Romeo Must Die is his first lead role in an English language film. Jet Li's character is not actually called Romeo, the title makes reference to Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet. The plot is kind of borrowed from that play, in that members of rival families fall in love. Personally I think that Kung Fu is exactly what the Bard needs to increase his popularity, and hopefully this won't be an isolated example. Li's character is actually called Han, and I suspect a little Star Wars homage going on here. Han's love interest is portrayed by a singer called Aaliyah (sounds a lot like Leia). Early in the movie he uses the alias Ackbar, and his father's name is Chu (short for Chewbacca?). Han was a Hong Kong cop, but was sent to prison for falsifying evidence and allowing his family, who unfortunately for him are triads, to go free. |
| Jet Li is cool, but doesn't have the charisma in the movie's all too frequent non-action scenes. His romance with Trisha O'Day is pretty non-existent, basically they just hang around together. The confused mess of a plot would not matter so much if the amazing martial arts the movie promises delivered. What is there is very good, but the action's over before it really gets started. Worthy of note though is the use of X-ray to show internal damage in Han's victims, and his novel way of avoiding hitting a woman. |
| They flee to the USA, and form an uneasy truce with a local gang of Afro-Americans. They plan to build a football stadium together, but someone is trying to ignite conflict between them by killing the gangs' leader's sons and hairdressers. Han escapes from prison to avenge his brother and becomes involved with the daughter of the rival gang's leader. The plot is actually suprisingly difficult to follow, mainly because most os the characters are incomprehensible a lot of the time. Delroy Lindo as Isaak O'Day is easily the best actor present, and the easiest to understand. |
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| There'sa lot of wire-use, to produce gravity-defying leaps, which is very cool. but it seems a little out of place and detracts from Li's obvious natural talents. Perhaps producer Joel Silver should have saved such impressive jumping for the next two Matrix instalments, which he also produces, and which look set to star Jet Li too. 6/10. |
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