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Reviews
Bound (1996)
a film you can get caught up in
Although the beginning of this film is incredibly cheesy, the flirting and chat up lines are like a sleazy porno, the remainder of the film just brushes it aside. Making this one intense thriller/romance. There is some great acting and Joe Pantoliano is superb as Caesea.
You can really appreciate some of the camera work and the opening shot is just so puzzling till you realise what you're seeing.
Being a Wachowski brothers film also makes this something special, especially being pre-matrix. Though you can't help but feel they are trying to cash in on a queer outlook, but it does make a change.
Overall this is a film that you can get caught up in, the action sweeping you up and not setting you down till the end. And the secateurs are very unnerving.
Unleashed (2005)
a new direction
So in the last few years we have seen Jet Li in Romeo must die and Cradle to the grave, both modern and with Jet Li approaching the subject of acting, though hardly touching it. So far Jet Li has not acted he has merely been that kung fu guy, another Bruce Lee.
But here, we see him act, not for just five minutes when there is a break in the fighting, but for the entire film. At times there is over half an hour between any kind of fighting, and it is very much appreciated. We really see a different side of Jet Li, this is not 'you killed my master; I have come to avenge him'. But a new, modern martial arts film, where we have a plot we can believe in.
Bob Hoskins takes a nice dramatic turn here, 'that man sure can talk', as Danny's 'owner' and it's a gangster role that suits him well. His angry growl is both fearsome and less put on but unleashed.
But don't get me wrong here; this is still a martial arts film. You'll find yourself cringing and laughing from fright at the fight scenes. Jet Li is not a sleek, showy performer here, but real fighter, intense and scary in his brutality. But equally brutal is the realisation of human freedom and human nature, in some ways were all somebody's dog.
Danny the Dog is clearly Jet Li's best work, and hopefully marks a new direction for him, one I am very much looking forward to seeing.