I saw Unleashed over the weekend and here is my review.
The fight scenes are some of the most brutal I’ve seen. I’ve watched a fair number of martial arts movies and have followed Jet Li for a while, but this was exceptionally intense. Danny (Li) wasn’t just fighting to neutralize a threat, he was fighting to hurt people, and hurt people he did. Hard, fast, and continuously.
At 40 Li still has his chops (sorry, couldn’t resist). His legendary speed and agility are mind-boggling. He attacks people like a jackhammer, relentlessly and without mercy. At least in the first part of the movie. Yep, he experiences an awakening and gets in touch with his humanity, but this is far from a chick flick. And his return to humanity doesn’t mean an end to the action.
Unleashed is a movie that revolves around what makes us human, what separates us from those who choose to behave like animals. In most of Li’s past movies he mainly fought without a lot of acting required. This movie has some of his best acting to date. He actually had to play a character instead of just walking around beating people up. In preparing for the role of Danny he studied the behavior of small children and dogs to emulate the behavior of somebody brought up in conditions that prevented normal social development.
Morgan Freeman is, well, he’s Morgan Freeman. He plays his usual reserved, level-headed character again. A good performance, but probably not his most memorable.
Guys, I’d recommend checking it out. It’s not one for the kiddies, though. The violence is intense, and the thugs use the F-word for punctuation in their speech. (Yeah- I’m one of those guys who still believes in maintaining civility around ladies and children.)