Directed by:
Louis LeterrierScreenplay:
Luc BessonCinematography:
Pierre MorelCast:
Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry Condon, Vincent Regan, Scott Adkins, Silvio Simac, Tamer Hassan, Georgina Chapman, Patrick Tang, Alain Figlarz (more)VOD (1)
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Jet Li stars as Danny, a human attack dog for a powerful mobster he calls Uncle Bart (Bob Hoskins, looking resplendent in white suit after white suit). When Bart and his men go out on their collection runs, they bring Danny, who has been trained since he was a child to fight to kill. When Bart takes Danny's collar off and commands, "Get 'im," Danny goes to work, an unstoppable machine, using the only weapon he knows: his body. But when a turf war ends up in bloody carnage, Danny escapes and is taken in by a kind family consisting of blind piano tuner Sam (Morgan Freeman) and his teenage stepdaughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon). They teach Danny how to be a real person, to be able to act civilly in society. They also allow Danny to explore his love of the piano, where a specific tune haunts him, bringing up repressed memories from his long-ago past. Just when Danny thinks he has escaped from his former life, he is pulled back in, but he is no longer the trained dog Bart thinks he is. (Focus Features)
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Reviews (8)
Solidly made, with a very simple screenplay and a restrained message (about family, friendship, and love). I appreciate the minimal use of slow-motion shots and computer effects, which proves how good Jet Li truly is in martial arts, but the quality of the action is far from from his best – Jet Li will probably never be surpass the unbeatable Lethal Weapon 4. The French school is noticeable, and the whole film has a rather European style, but this action flick feels too simple and conservative to me.
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I dreamed about a movie like this when I was a teenager. Too bad it only came out now. Unleashed is a rarely seen combination of an effective drama, a simple action premise, excellent fight choreography and French charm. We see Jet Li as finally humanized and relatable, Morgan Freeman plays his most typical mentor role and Massive Attack provides the music.
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Amélie from the gritty corners of Glasgow, or the perfect combination of the fierce style of young French directors at the turn of the millennium and the fantastic action choreography of the Hong Kong masters in an enchantingly naive and aggressively brutal action fairy tale, which as a European high-concept blockbuster is also wonderful historical evidence of the peak of production achieved by Besson’s Europa Corp., as no one else has ever put together such a diverse mix of niche-hip names (Massive Attack, RZA, Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Luc Besson, Yuen Woo-Ping).
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Well, either fucking make an urban combat movie or a sentimental sweetness about life. The filmmakers just don't know, because if they wanted to make the former, the middle part would look a little different and at least be interspersed with some of that dismembered corpse stuff, and if the latter, the fights would be limited to a scene where Jet Li takes out a giant fighter in an arena (pretty funny, by the way). As it is, it's a mixture of drawn-out fights, cute sentimentalism, and unpalatable kitsch. Plus lapses in logic. Either that or the rest of the bad guys in the penultimate scene are out of contract after the boss dies.
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A classic, quality, but no longer surprising Jet-Li action flick, poorly masked by a higher message in the form of unquestionable ideas about the need for friendship, love and the fact that the right family is always a support. Had it stayed with just that message, led by the always great Freeman, it would have been a great film. But combined with the breaking of all possible limbs, it's another Made by Besson single-use piece of crap.
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