A huge waste of potential and talent.....

I agree with most of the opinions of this poster. This film had potential but needed a better screen writer. Some of the supporting characters were unnecessary. It needed character development between Han and Trish. It would be interesting to see why an older Asian male who just escaped from prison would develop a "friendship" with a younger African American female. I did like the scenes with Han and his father and with Trish and her father.

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I agree with you completely. The fighting scenes was terrible - it seems that Jet Li can fly, his enemys are waiting, until Li is done with his current opponent and only then attacks, did you see how he does the cartweel over the guy - would that guy let him do that if it would be real? Also how can he do so much kicks in the air? And the worst is that movie creators try to pretend reality. Current rating is far too good.

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[deleted]

I was sorely disappointed with this movie, which is a shame because the basic idea was interesting and there was a lot going for it. When i first heard of the title, i was thinking that anyone hoping to do anything like a "Romeo and Juliet" with the rival families being Afro-american and Chinese, the couple played by an R&B singer and martial artist must be out of his mind. It would be the boldest thing in cinema history, a turning in popular racial/cultural thinking. OK ok, viewed in such a climactic sense, this flick doesn't even scratch the surface, and obviously wasn't hoping to. I guess it did deliver the R&B and martial arts though....

If you were expecting a heavily influenced Romeo and Juliet format in a Jet-Li martial arts film you must have generally unrealistic expectations from movies.

So what was good. Not a lot. Aaliyah was as hot as ever and yes i was hoping for some romance between her and Jet Li, even if the whole Romeo and Juliet thing could never really have worked. Thing is, it would have been the rarest things in cinema history. I can not think of a single film which would even attempt romance between a female Afro-american and a male Chinese, and i stress the sexes here. By not realising what potential this had, this film was never going to be good. I can understand why the romance was not quite there though. The coupling was hardly possible and Jet Li was about 17 years older than Aaliyah. And also, Jet Li's not cut out for it. He's not really a male icon even in the far east...He's known for one thing, martial arts.....A kissing scene would have been bizarre yet unmissable...given how he reacts in the few romantic scenes he has done (none of them have kissing)...

It would've been corny and predictable.

The bad. I don't know how it is for the afro-americans here but as an ethnic Chinese i found the sterotypes tiresome. I've been to HK and i'm pretty sure they don't beat prisoners hung upside down with batons (they do talk about horse gambling though). They don't call HK one of the Four Tigers for nothing. I advise anyone who wants to know anything about HK and not just the stereotype to watch how they portray themselves to a Chinese audience. Something like Infernal Affairs for example. And yes HK is distinct from China. Jet Li was actually using cantonese with that guard, not manderin, which is what he uses for the rest of the film. And you would be very lucky to meet anyone in HK who knows proper kung-fu. Your better chances are in fact in China. All HK did was produce a lot of Kung-fu movies and start-off the genre because they had a thriving a movie industry which the mainland didn't have at the time.

How the hell would you know how they treat prisoners in the jails unless you've actually been? and whether you think it's exaggerated or over the top it's a martial arts action film, not The Shawshank Redemption.

Also, like a lot of the critics here, i have issues with the fight scenes. What's with the unrealistic wire-work. We all know what Jet Li can do without the wire, and even with the wire i have seen a lot better. What made it worst was the enhancements, speed-ups and x-ray sequences. For a moment i thought i was watching sci-fi and no longer took the film seriously. What were the director and choreographer thinking.

This came out very soon after The Matrix and they wanted to use and capitalise on those sorts of fight scenes. With the success and highly talked about fight scenes in the Matrix it's no surprise they wanted to incorporate these elements into the film.

So basically you didn't like the film because you were expecting a modern day adaption of Romoe & Juliet in a friggin martial arts action film, you find one scene in a prison inaccurate even though you have no clue how things would really operate and you didn't like the use of strings in fight scenes which has been done to success many times? Well just like most morons on this board you have a very weak arguement against this film.

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I would have LOVED a kissing scene with Aaliyah and Jet Li as would a lot of people. I agree the black and Asian stereotypes were overdone and horrible, especially with he rap music being played and the n word being dropped a lot. But that prison scene I do not think it was specific to how they are treated only in the HK, believe me prisons in countries all over the world do that so unless you have not had it happened to you, you should not talk and say you are pretty sure it does not happen.

I personally really enjoyed this film, yes it could have been better, mainly with a kiss or sex scene between the love interest in the film and less stereotypes and racism against blacks, and less rap music, and a couple of different actors, and maybe more substance, but overall it was really good.

And although I am not Chinese or Asian I do understand the stereotypes in this film, why are you so ignorant about the stereotypes against Blacks?

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[deleted]

I just want to say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. Everytime it comes on, I just HAVE to watch it. My only complaint is WHY O WHY there was not a kissing scene btw the two main characters. I loved the comic relief, the interaction btw Han and Trish (needed a kiss, of course), and I just loved watching Isaiah Washington and Russell Wong playing the great 2nd in commands. It earns high marks for me. :)

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