Buy from Amazon.com

Unleashed
by Lando da Pimp

While viewing the movie Unleashed, I felt like I was watching two different movies combined into one. On one side we find the character Danny, (Jet Li) a martial arts fighter that is the ultimate killing machine. Danny has been trained to attack when his keeper, crime boss Bart (Bob Hoskins) removes his collar. Bart refers to Danny as his dog and treats him as so. Danny is passive when wearing the collar, but undomesticated and unrelenting when its removed.

The second story finds Danny taken in by Sam (Morgan Freeman) and his 18-year old stepdaughter, Victoria. They befriend him and slowly re-train Danny to be a human being. This part of the film is a complete 180 from the violent dark first Act.

Slowly Danny begins to track down his past and whom his mother was, only to be brought back into Bart's corrupt world of violence. When Danny refuses to no longer fight, Bart wants his revenge. Danny must now protect his new family from his brutal past forcing him to fight back.

Special Features
There is a nice, small collection of bonus features available. First you can watch two different versions of the film, the theatrical cut and a new unrated version with cut footage. A behind the scenes feature "The Collar Comes Off" looks at the making of the film with the cast and crew. "Serve No Master" shows the fight sequence choreographer with Yuen Wo Ping. Also included is an interview the director Louis Leterrier and music videos from Massive Attack and The RZA.

Overall
This is a very different Jet-Li film that may surprise people who are not fans of martial arts films. While the movie feels like two different films fused together it somehow comes together in the end. The second act is very quiet and peaceful and helps break up the grim violence from the first Act. I did have a hard time believing that there are people like the characters of Sam and Victoria in the world that take this stranger into their house and not really question who he is. Overall this was a great film and one of the better performances from Jet-Li.

The film contains enough quiet, reflective moments for us to become aware how preposterous the central conceit is, and that keeps us at arm's length. For a movie that strives to be in-your-face, that's too far away.

Unleashed is available on Amazon.com.

WIN A COPY
You can win a copy of Unleashed on DVD right now! Simply tell us the name you would choose if you were the ultimate fighter in the world. E-mail your anwswer to entry AT millionaireplayboy.com. One winner will be chosen at random to receive a copy of the DVD. Good luck.

This review is ©2005 MillionairePlayboy.com