f l o o d

Danny the Dog

finally an american jet li movie that looks like it's not going to suck.

i guess the key is that it's not really american. it's written by luc besson, in english, but i suppose it could be considered a french film. jet li has always been one of my favorite movie martal artists. his hong kong films are awesome, but none of his american-made films have been worth diddly poop. for some reason he always seems to be stuck performing with rappers or with special-effect superpowers. the great thing about his hong kong films is that they just feature his incredible abilities without dressing them up too much. same thing with american jackie chan movies. how come he always has to have some external thing (a medallion or tuxedo) giving him power. can't he just kick butt?

in Danny the Dog jet li plays a man trained like a dog to fight for money. he knows nothing outside of this world, but when his "owner" gets in an accident he gets away and is taken in by a blind piano tuner, played by morgan freeman. as anyone who's watched The Professional or The Fifth Element knows, Besson is very adept at creating exciting action, but at the same time he develops great characters and doesn't rely solely on action. jet li may not be marlon brando, but i think he's a better actor than people give him credit for. he just can't act in english. this character should allow him to showcase both his martial arts and acting abilities without having to speak too much. and morgan freeman is always awesome, of course.

so what got me all googly about this movie? the trailer (9MB, requires DivX) was just released online, and boy howdy does it look good.

another plus, no rap music. instead, new music from massive attack. sweet.

Posted by bwu at July 21, 2004 10:07 PM