ROMEO MUST DIE-Warner Bros.-2000-This Jet Li vehicle (his first starring role in a US release) isn’t very good. There’s a lot of talk and the story line isn’t very original. And what is it with Hollywood and gangsters? I guess they’re called “crime lords” today. I mean guys who deal drugs and murder people aren’t very virtuous yet at least one “gang” is always better than the other.
Hell, thugs are thugs and whether they are White, Chinese, Afro-American or whatever they are still criminals, scum if you will and yet there’s always one “good” gang with an “honorable” leader. Hey this was ok in the 1930’s when Bogart or Cagney or Eddie G. was at the helm but times change! THERE IS NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES!
(Rant over...sorry)
So anyway, as a former cop named Han Sing, Li escapes from a Chinese prison after learning of his brother’s death. He comes to America and finds his dad (who he helped escape from China) is a powerful crime lord. Through a mix-up he becomes involved with Trish (rapper Aaliyah in her acting debut) the daughter of another mobster (Delroy Lindo from Spike Lee movies). He’s the kind of “good gangster” who loves his kids and wants to make a clean break after his business with Han’s dad (Henry O, who had a small role in SHANGHAI NOON with Jackie Chan the same year) and a wimpy white guy is finished.
The martial arts fight scenes seem more like a Li audition for MATRIX 2 (at the time it was rumored Keanu Reeves didn’t want to do the sequel and that Li might replace him). The director, Polish born Andrzei Bartkowiak was the cinematographer on LETHAL WEAPON 4 (where Li made his American debut). Also with Isaiah Washington (TRUE CRIME), Russell Wong, DMX and Matthew Harrison (pretty funny as a trash talking, muscle bound bodyguard). The annoying hip-hop soundtrack doesn’t help either. Aaliyah was killed in a 2001 plane crash after completing her only other film QUEEN OF THE DAMNED.
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