Unleashed: Movie Stars Jet Li and Morgan Freeman

After witnessing the brutal murder of his mother, Danny(Jet Li) is take in by his uncle(Bob Hoskins), and is trained(also treated)as a dog. He is forced to do what his uncle pleases, His uncle controls him by putting and taking off a collar, and when his uncle says “Get ’em”, He turns into a vicious fighter, beating anybody to a pulp. When his uncle is attacked, he escapes and eventually is sheltered by a man named Sam, that is blind(Morgan Freeman)and plays the piano. He is taught a lesson in humanity and emotion that will change him from a dog to a person. When his uncle, Bart, rises again, that very fabric is threatened, and Danny must fight for his new family and the existance of him as a person.

Louis Leterrier has created a masterful, emotional, and brutal martial arts movie. He skillfully takes the direction of the movie from the brutal fight scenes to the emotionally wonderful scenes between Danny and Sam and Victoria. Also, even though the film is short on run time, the director inserts enough character development to tell us who Danny really was before. Luc Besson has created a clever script, with a strikingly genius concept (A Man raised as a dog, and trained as a dog.)The dialogue was shoddy at certain points, but the actors more than held up the script with their superb acting.

Jet Li can act. He seriously proved this with this film. In my opinion, the reason why he doesn’t act all that well is mainly because of the language barrier. Even though he had a limited number of lines, he really used them to his advantage, and made a stellar emotional and physical performance. Bob Hoskins was brilliant as Bart. The character was brutal and menacing. Hoskins really portrayed the character really well, and I feel that if there was anybody slightly different, then the part wouldn’t be as effective.

Morgan Freeman, coming off his Oscar win for Million Dollar Baby, really proves that he deserved it, and shows a stellar performance as Sam. The only performance I had problems with was Kerry Condon’s portrayal as Victoria, maybe it was because of lack of experience, or maybe she just didn’t really take the character as far as she could’ve taken her. Prior to this film, she has only 6 films under her belt. I have see Ned Kelly and Intermission, and she was just okay in those films.

Woo-ping Yuen’s chorography was brilliant. The man behind The Matrix’s and Kill Bill Vol.2’s has created and formed some amazing and awe inspiring fight scenes with the help of Philippe Gugan, the stunt coordinator. The music by Massive Attack, and The Rza really fit the film well, and helped maintain the pace of it.

I was pleased by this film. I went into this film with high expectations and came out in good spirits, because I had witness a stellar martial arts movie. I was glad that I had taken the time out and seen this movie because it is a worth wile movie. I am surprised that this film has not gotten better reception than it has, because this is a truly remarkable movie.