Unleashed (Danny the Dog) Movie Review

Original French Movie Poster

It’s kind of late review of film but better late than never ;)
I seen this movie on opening night and I was surprise to see about half of the seat was empty. I would thought it would be at least near full on opening night… Most of audience in the movie was either Asian or African American. Not that there is anything wrong with it but I wish this movie reach more wider audience, may on DVD…

How do I like this movie? I think this is the best US Jet Li movie, even though this movie was made in Europe. Style of fighting is much different from previous movies he done and that made this film better and more interesting. In this movie he uses mix of martial arts and street fighting style. He block punch with his head, yes his head. All the fighting looked very brutal and realistic without wire-fu effect. I specially loved fight sequence in small restroom. It is one of Jet Li’s best works in long time.
One of complaint I had about US Jet Li movies were he could not speak good English and it effected he’s acting skill. Even he is not Oscar worthy by watching his Asian movies; you can tell he is fine actor. Maybe it’s just me but when he spoke in English, he voice sounded very different from his Chinese voice. He sounded like bad guy.. However, in this movie he has finally overcome those problems. He does good job acting and even tone of voice does not sound like villain.
Watching this movie kind of remained me of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s movie “Nowhere to Run” I know it’s totally different movie with different story, but this is movie where Mr. Damme try to put more drama/acting into his movie. In this movie, despite great action, there is more drama/acting than Mr. Li’s other US movies.
Morgan Freeman was solid as usual however; it was one of his weaker performances. (Maybe it’s just me) Another thing that bothers me was that Jet Li looked 40-ish, I don’t know how old he is suppose to be in the movie, but girl he fell in loved is suppose to be around 18. Just kinda fell weird...
If you like Jet Li, martial arts movie, and/or action movie just go see it and thank me later.