Cradle to the Grave with Jet Li

Ever seen Exit Wounds? It seems someone out there did and thought “it’d better with Jet Li…” so they got the same guys (DMX, Tom Arnold, Anthony Anderson etc) and replaced Stephen Seagal with Jet Li!

Ok, maybe the movies aren’t the exactly the same. The same group playing some good guy criminals who encounter trouble from the martial arts star and eventually teaming up is pretty damn similar!

This time DMX’s daughter has been kidnapped and he wants to get her back. Jet Li is a law enforcer and he wants these special ‘black diamonds’ back. The same guy, an evil fella played by martial artist Mark Dacascos and his girl played by Kelly Hu, have both. Why? DMX’s character stole the black stones from him and he is using the kidnapping to get him to hand them over…. but they’ve been stolen.

Messy? Poor DMX.

You can guess what happens, everyone forms the super team and they go out to get back the stones and save ~~DMX’s~~ Anthony Faith’s daughter.

It’s still kinda cool!

DMX plays a cool character, and who doesn’t like Jet Li? This film has a cool soundtrack and cast of characters that seem to flow naturally, I can see why they’ve recycled a lot of the cast from Exit Wounds – but I don’t even know if the men behind these two films are even the same.

While this isn’t Jet Li’s best film it’s still pretty cool and flows well. There’s always a lot happening and a the story line is quite colorful. Anthony Anderson does a good job in lightening the mood a bit with his funnier moments – chatting up a guy working as a security guard, pretending to be a pest inspector to break into a local club and just his general attitude and jokes make it light-hearted and fun. Tom Arnold also adds a similar feeling but not quite on the same level.

There’s no philosophy here, just a run of the mill action film made in Hollywood but with some relatively decent martial arts action.

Of course the main character (DMX’s Anthony Faith) saves the world from Apocalyptic danger but doesn’t care, as long as his daughter is safe – one of those sort of cliche ‘good daddy’ figures of a movie to add some integrity to his bad boy rapper image. It’s done decent enough though.

The Action & Martial Arts

This movie has some nice fights sprinkled throughout with a few cool chases – including one with a 4 wheeler down town which is put together very nicely and is just cool to watch. All of this is at the same time as a fight inside the club with some very famous UFC Champions as underground fighters.

We see Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and their resident Champion Tito Ortiz – who was Champion at the time of filming. I find that funny since both Randy and Chuck kicked his ass bigtime shortly afterward, stripping him of his UFC title.

But back to the movie – eventually of these guys turn on Jet Li’s character and he even has a brief one on one stand off with Ortiz’s character. There’s even a few quick fights with Johnny Nguyen before he started land more leading roles.

Even at the very end these ‘parallel’ action scenes and fights are prevalent, and work for the film – but it gets a bit old. Just as a fight scene gets interesting we cut to something else, and the value of a good, well choreographed fight is lost as the length of it is trimmed to fit all of the action and we only see bits and pieces. Although it was still good, some fights could have been a lot better without the constant ‘in and out’.

This ‘in and out’ does impact the fight between Jet Li and Mark Dacascos though, whose talent seems a little wasted and watered down in the film. It had so much wasted potential and should have been the highlight of the film – but it’s just not.

Jet Li’s relaxed fighting style is very cool. He’ll stand quite normally, one hand in his pocket and quite casually but sharply, beat his opponents down with some flashy blocks and strikes. It’s a little different and creates a sense of awe around his skills and ability when introducing his character.

Overall?

A cool and fun film, some decent fights and action as well as good on screen chemistry. Not one of the best but just a fun watch. If you like Exit Wounds, then seeing a far superior performer (in my opinion) like Jet Li will make this a more enjoyable film for you.