Unlimitedia
Sick Product of a Sick System
Reptileenbu
Did you people see the same film I saw?
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
varghesejunior
This is an interesting short thrilling film of Jet li.Story is about a Taiwan cop and a small time thief who join hands to find extraordinary gems after which many people are, including an international criminal, who has taken the thief's daughter as hostage.The story line is fast paced, action scenes are good, Jet li's karate work is awesome, many of the stunts are well taken. Jet li and DMX are the best actors.But some of the stuff is highly exaggerated, like a helicopter bursting mid air, and a man emerging from that unscathed. also the film has few explicit scenes.Jet li fans will like it.
Pilsung89
China and Hong Kong aren't the only countries that can make cheap martial arts flicks. That's what Cradle 2 The Grave is. It's one of those "watch just for the action" type movies.The plot is extremely unrealistic at times. First off, Tom Arnold is a black market type dealer from the streets. How the heck did he get ahold of an M1 tank and why was he trying to sell to DMX? Wouldn't people be suspicious when they saw that thing rolling down the streets doing a drive by? Then he claims that guys who robbed him had special guns even he couldn't get. If you can get a tank, you can get anything. Also, there is a big-time crime lord gangster who's in jail. Thing is, he lives like a king there. His cell looks like an apartment, he's got a cook, he's got two guards who even deliver mail to him, and he's still running his business. There's some other ones but I won't name them all.This is how the story goes: DMX is Tony Fait, a small-time yet somewhat brilliant thief who's got a few friends in a gang with him. One of them is his girlfriend. He tries to be a "good" bad guy with his no gun policy. During a heist where he is stealing black diamonds for someone else, Jet Li gets in the way. Fait ends up barely escaping with the black stones. Fait goes to Tom Arnold, an underworld dealer, and gives him the stones to analyze them. However, the stones are stolen by a big gang run by the jail gangster. Then the man who originally laid out the plans to get the stones kidnaps Faits daughter and demands the stones. Fait reluctantly teams up with Jet Li to rescue his child.Although Jet Li's name is first on the movie cover, there is no way he is the lead role. He lacks not only the speaking lines, but just on-screen time in general. The action is a step up from Romeo must die. There is not that much wire-fu in this movie. However, Jet Li doesn't really have a whole lot of fighting time in this flick. In the beginning he has two brief one-on-one encounters. Then he briefly helps DMX in a fight. The main fight is when he takes on the 20 cage fighters in the underworld fighting club. The fighting was occasionally fake and weird, but not too bad. Jet's climactic fight with Mark Dascascos was pretty good, although they cut in and out of it too many times. As for DMX, he is good at times in the fight sequences, but his martial arts is obviously fake.If you are a major Jet Li fan like me, then see this movie and admire it for what it is. It is a cheap budget, low production, chopsocky Hollywood martial arts flick.
Jakethemuss
Not only is this Jet Li's worst film, but is just generally a waste of time. Its depresses and annoys me to see a genuine martial arts star like Jet let himself be used in some 2 dimensional, shallow MTV themed vehicle where he wears sunshades and hangs around with "blingged up" gangsta's. After seeing this movie, my respect for Jet Li dropped considerably, Romeo must Die was off target, but this is just daft.Not surprisingly, I only watched it once, so the plot is a little vague in my mind. But I don't think there was much of a plot to begin with. It involves Jet Li teaming up with jewel thief DMX after D's daughter is kidnapped by a villain played by Mark Dacascos, what follows is a garish hash of cheesy fake fights, quad bike chases, boring banal conversations, and failed attempts at humour.Upon hearing both Jet Li AND Mark Dacascos were starring in this movie I was fairly excited, but excitement soon turned to disappointment after managing to sit through to the credits.I don't mind films like this being made, a lot of people are into this rubbishy popcorn genre of movies..but Jet is above this. He shouldn't have resorted to this to keep himself afloat. If you want Jet Li films, watch Hit-man or the OUATIC series..NOT this.
BroadswordCallinDannyBoy
A thief steals a stash of black diamonds and this accidentally involves his family in an international terrorist plot since the diamonds are not just your typical diamonds. He joins forces with a mysterious guy who is dressed in all black and can kick serious ass with his martial arts skills to set things right. And, of course, kill the bad guys.The plot is pretty silly, but the action is decent so if you just want to see a cheesy action movie, this is a pretty good choice. However, the film tries hard to have a dramatic and thriller edge that is just laughable. It tries to go push itself into a larger scope by the end. That is where you'll either tell yourself that you enjoyed the movie, or whether the whole thing just crashed and burned for you. However there is a good array of stunts and Jet Li shows off what he does best (again). However, at the same time the some of the action scenes seem to beg you into thinking that they are good with their fast paced editing and slow mo that doesn't really manage to cover up much of their mediocrity.Basically it is just a direct-to-video action movie, but with star power. It was that, and only that, which provided it with its theater run. --- 5/10 Rated R for violence and profanity