Unleashed

What happens when a good idea goes terribly wrong
Starring: Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, and Kerry Condon
Written by: Luc Besson
Directed by: Louis Leterrier

In concept (and in the trailers for that matter), this is a movie that could have very easily gone the other way. It's supposed to be a "kung-fu movie with heart" if you will, where Jet Li, an exceptionally-damaged person, winds up in the loving home of a step-father and daughter (Morgan Freeman and Kerry Condon, respectively) and tries to find himself through them. However, the end result was an extremely unbalanced affair, which jumped from over the top fight scenes to a family drama at the blink of an eye and left no room or time for any emotions to truly set in. There's an overusage of narrative economy, particularly on the parts of Bart (Bob Hoskins) and the rest of the "bad guys" in the film, who really come off as over the top versions of the bad guys played in all of Guy Ritchie's films (or similar british crime film for that matter). This overkill makes the overall effort of this film seem particularly lazy and not well integrated, and the action/fight sequences of the film are equally ridiculous, and not in any wowing fashion (these are all moves that either Jet Li or one of his many counterparts have done before), so there really wasn't much to look forward to in that aspect as well. By the end of the film, it seemed that if it had stuck to being simply either an action movie or a drama, it would have been much more successful, but instead it's a half-hazard in-betweener that, while partially entertaining, never really amounts to much, and is subpar to what everyone involved is capable of doing.

Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆