Danny the Dog

Dont' laugh, but Unleashed starring Jet Li was a really good movie.

First of all, Luc Besson wrote it and he is responsible for some very creative action oriented movies like Le Femme Nikita, Leon (The Professional) and The Fifth Element. Luc has this magical way of making the preposterous seem plausible and Unleashed is no different.

Jet Li plays Danny the Dog, a man who has been raised by a Scottish gangster as a dog since a very young age. Bob Hoskins shines as this nasty crook who has abused Danny by using him to handle his collections by "unleashing" his collar and commanding him to kill. The fight sequences in this movie are different than most karate movies I've seen in the sense that the hitting that Jet Li does is harder and more out of control to play up the wild dog angle...and I like it.

When Danny escapes from his rotten Uncle Bart (Hoskins) he takes refuge with a blind piano tuner Sam (the always convincing Morgan Freeman) and his white step daughter Victoria. With them Danny learns to be less of a dog and more of a child who is wonder stuck by most of what he sees and experiences.

What makes this movie good to me is the caliber of the performances. All the actors do an great job of convincing me that this could be real. As far fetched as it may be, I'm buying it. Dare I say that Jet Li actually is a good actor? Over the last couple years I've seen him grow more and more as an actor, the complete opposite of Jackie Chan who still looks like he has no idea what he is saying in English in any movie.

Add in a soundtrack my Massive Attack, some great cinematography and cool art direction and this movie is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.