Romeo Must Die

Jet Li, Aaliyah

Pretty standard fare from your basic "gangster action flick" Jet Li has good facial expressions (if you consider them subtle enough to put your own emotions onto them), and Aaliyah had fairly good acting . . . this is, of course, taking into consideration that is was the first lead role for each of them.

That aside, the story was pretty bland, and the dialogue was stilted, and the black gangsters were more charicatures than frightening, which made the whole thing seem like a farce, and let's face it, by the end of the movie, when our two leads meet up, it's like "Hey! Both our brothers are dead, and one dad just got shot and bled out on a motel floor and the other's dad just killed himself so he wouldn't face jailtime for killing his own son! Cool! Wanna go grab a burger? OK!"

Watch it only if you want to hear a loud Hip Hop soundtrack throughout the entire movie. Not really a bad soundtrack . . . just a weak screenplay.

Liked the "X-Ray effect" though - when Jet Li hit somebody REALLY HARD the camera would show the effect on the skeleton of the poor idiot who was unlucky enough to receive the blow. OUCH!

VG