At last, we've finally seen a good summer action movie. We were all beginning to despair that the threat of the impending actors strike was going to leave us with dregs as the many mediocre movies we've seen flittered and disappeared off the screen. Adding to the insult has been the increasing trend of movie theaters to buff up their concessions profits with really bad commercials that play to a captive audience. The theater we visit supports Pepsi and we've been subjected to the mid-summer Britney Spears commercial that replaced the the stupid, patronizing, overly lengthy, lip-synching Pepsi girl commercial. It's not that we object to Britney Spears, who is a big improvement, visually-speaking, over the stupid Pepsi girl, but we don't think she's that talented as a singer or dancer and 90 seconds is way too bleeding long to have to sit through a bad song with mediocre choreography, even if Bob Dole manages to salvage it a little bit in the last 8 seconds. We won't even discuss the equally painful 30 second Fandango commercial which is about 30 seconds too long or the hilariously ironic and painful Will Rogers foundation commercial starring Anthony Hopkins who asks you to save the children by buying the special "combo packs" at the concessions counter which is some mix of buckets of popcorn and soft drinks. It must be okay to promote heart attacks and tooth decay in the name of the children.
But enough ranting or we'll have to start in on those parents who bring their young children to R-rated action movies and we'll never get to the review.
Kiss of the Dragon stars Jet Li as, Liu Jian, a Chinese police officer sent by the Chinese Government to help a French team with a Chinese drug dealer. Without giving away too much, things go badly and Li finds himself on the run from the French authorities and without the help of the Chinese government. His only help comes from his safehouse contact Uncle Tai (Burt Kwouk), who works as a restaurant supplier and the cautionary sage, and Jessica, the Hooker With The Heart Of Gold, played by Bridget Fonda. Jet Li's mission in the movie is to clear his name while bringing the bad guys to justice and rescue Jessica's daughter in return for her help.
But of course, that's just the window dressing around an action movie. It's obligatory - like having to have bread in a sandwich. But the bread in this movie actually has a little more substance than the usual martial arts movie. A lot of the scenes deliver a very nice dark, moody, and contemplative feel that some depth to the overall story, written by Jet Li. There was actually some good potential for the kind of depth and character development that we've seen in movies like La Femme Nikita and The Professional. This shouldn't be too surprising as one of the screenplay writers is Luc Besson who wrote and directed La Femme Nikita. The other screenplay writer is Robert Mark Kamen known for the Karate Kid movies and The Fifth Element and we figure that he's responsible for the slightly over-the-top but very enthusiastic villains and possibly for the lead-ins for the martial art scenes.
There are some hysterically funny moments in the movie. One of the critically bad ones comes halfway through the movie from a long tirade and exposition by Jessica which required an earlier scene that had probably been cut for length or bad acting. This awful scene was necessary to explain why the two are stuck together but it desperately needed a little more foundation than the scenes that came before it. Another one appears in a police station when Liu Jian runs through the wrong door and we are treated to a scene that may have been a tribute to Bruce Lee. There are also the various plot holes and "What the hell?" moments that are typically found in an action movie.
The acting in the movie was about or slightly above average for this genre. Jet Li plays the classic strong and silent hero, trapped in a country where he doesn't speak the language and surrounded by potential enemies. He does a great job of creating a kind of silent space around him that exudes serenity and purpose. Fonda is serviceable in her role as the humanizing influence for Li's character. Tcheky Karyo plays a fairly good villain. The rest of the cast are the usual random assortment of supporting characters and evil punching bags.
Which brings us to the fights. There have been two increasing tendencies in action flicks in the last few years. The first is to have fast-paced action scenes overly-enhanced by wires and Matrix style CGI. The second is to adopt the Saving Private Ryan approach and do lots of very fast cuts and splices so that the viewer feels the chaos of real combat but never really sees anything directly. Thankfully, this movie has very little wire fu and actually gives you time to enjoy the artistry of Li and the other stuntmen. This film does a lot to showcase Li's grace and acrobatic ability. Borrowing from Jackie Chan's improvisational style that uses the environment as a weapon, Li's speed and effortless flow through numerous situations and dangers is a lot of fun to watch. The martial arts choreography for Li is spare and exact - nothing flashy or unnecessary and everything in its place. We also get to see good use of joint lock techniques - very effective but rarely used because they're not very flashy. This is very good fu and some of the best that we've seen on screen in a long time.
Now, we came into the movie a bit skeptical because, while we respected Jet Li's athletic abilities and martial arts skills, the only movies we had seen him in to-date were Lethal Weapon 4 and Romeo Must Die which were miserably bad movies and left a bad taste in our heads After seeing this movie, we now believe that Li, in his late 30's, still has the potential to pull off a successful American film career. He may even be able to equal Jackie Chan's now illustrious career because Li's command of English and acting are much better and both will allow him a range of serious films that are not Chan's strengths. Li will do very well if he can continue to get good projects and avoid the fates of other briefly-famous martial arts actors like Steven Segal and Claude Van Damme, both of whom let ego overcome common sense and kept choosing increasingly worse movies because they thought the actor was more important than the writer, and also the fates of Bruce and Brandon Lee, both of whom made the mistake of dying early before their careers could take off, which is good for attaining cult status but bad for a movie making career.
We give this movie a 5 on the Good Movie Scale and an 8 on the Bad Movie Scale. It's very entertaining, nicely paced, and has some great fu. The story works and the directing is very good. We hope that the summer has more to offer in the way of good popcorn fare but after looking ahead to Jurassic Park 3 and Planet of the Apes, we suspect Kissing the Dragon may be as good as it will get.
Our Drive-In Totals:
16 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
4 Innocent Bystanders
14 Regular Size Henchmen
2 Supersized Henchmen With Superbleach For Easy Identification
Dreadlocked Cab Driver
Pink Shrimp Chips
Blue Shrimp Chips
Application of "Repair Pig" Skill
Working Barbie Dolls
Losing Your Better Half Incident
Kiss of the Dragon
1 Turtlenapping
1 Neato Airport Locker
1 Evil-looking, French Airport Attendant
11 Hookers
1 Hooker with Heart of Gold
1 Hooker with Ass of Shaking
1 Gratuitous Dojo with surplus of black belts
1 Frontal Assault
Orphaned Henchmen
Kung Fu
Gun Fu
Acupuncture Needle Fu
Hairpin Fu
Grenade Fu
Knife Fu
Squee Gee Fu
Car Fu
3-ball Fu
Table Fu
Chair Fu
Laundry Bag Fu
Washer Fu
Dryer Fu
Hat Rack Fu
Random T-Shaped Boat Apparatus Fu (If anyone identifies this, let us
know)
Iron Fu
Glass Fu
Chopstick Fu
Random Dialogue Fu (Almost died laughing)
Good Movie Scale: 5
Bad Movie Scale: 8
