Unleashed Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Hilarious gem of a martial arts movie

Jet Li is a boy brought up as a dog, trained to kill by some cockney gangsters operating in a cockney accented Glasgow. Sounds ludicrous, it is but man is it enjoyable. Riffing from Aliens, Clockwork Orange, Werner Herzog, in parts with some minor director showboating, it's brilliantly entertaining. With Tony Jaa getting some rave reviews for Ong-Bak it's nice to see that Jet Li's efforts in this completely absurd film come through. Surefire tongue-in-cheek mixed with great action sequences this was a real surprise with some real laugh out loud moments. Martial arts and comedy fans, check this out.

This was a joy to watch.

'Unleashed' has to be one of the most visually stunning Li movies recently: 'Kiss of the Dragon' was good; 'Romeo Must Die' was as entertaining as paint drying. Here, the martial arts scenes have been very well choreographed, making it look stunning and balanced. As you'd expect there is a sappy 'love' story, but in the sense of family. Li's acting is very well performed here too, no longer drabbed in leather and looking elitist. This was a joy to watch.

The Dogs B$LL$CKS

This is an ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT film! I was dubious about watching this at first when I saw that Bob Hoskins was in the cast but he is excellent and so too are the other characters. Morgan Freeman acts to his usual flawless standard, Jet Li shows that he can act (VERY WELL) as well as perform mesmerising martial arts, and the less well known Kerry Condon also plays a great part. This is a great film to watch and if you haven't seen it rent it NOW!!!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Great!

Unleashed is a great film, with some great fight scenes involving Jet Li. There is some good action, and a good story(which is unusual for a non-Asian Jet Li film). Jet Li looked to be having fun, Bob Hoskins was good in his role, and Morgan Freeman was as reliably good as ever(see Batman Begins, in which he steals most of the scenes he is in!).

If you liked Unlashed, then rent Fist of Legend.

[Highly rated reviewer]

This Is No Dog!

I'll start with a sweeping statement: This is Jet Li's finest acting performance to date. We all know the man can move and he can kick butt like no other action star, but this film gives him a real chance to step outside of what we expect from him.

Louis Leterrier brings brutal Martial Arts action to the screen like no other European Director. He showed what he could do with The Transporter. Here he kicks it up an extra notch. This is a simple story of how violence can be tamed by "family", and it has some real brutality to prove a point.

Bob Hoskins plays the deranged gangster a little over the top, while Morgan Freeman is pure grace and peace incarnate. A marvellous film, if you can stomach the violence .

martial arts with a plot!

Wow...I cant remember the last time I saw a martial arts film with a reasonable plot, usually its just used to pad out the constant action scenes. In Unleashed a large portion of the movie is concerned with developing the story.

Another good thing (in my opinion)is the lack of obvious wire work in the fight scenes. They probably were used at some points but the fights aren't as unbelievable as many out there at the moment.

This is great

This is great. Anyone that likes martial arts with a fantastic story this is for you.

Jet Li needs an oscar for his part. WATCH AND SEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its a shame it was Unleashed

The positives are really only the fight scenes, which are brilliantly set & acted, this ends the positives.

The negatives, well it may take more than the 500-word allowance but in summary: The story was so far fetched & missing one key element.......if Jet was brought up as a 'dog' who taught him the martial arts, he was simple & hardly spoke but yet was in constant company of adults (ok gangland thugs) How did a blind man treat his wound? How does a 'family' just take in a mute bleeding unknown, you never see one policeman yet the gang sprays bullets everywhere, he fights in a well organised & attended 'fight to the death match' which everyone treats like going to the footie yet the authorities dont know about: this is in Glasgow mind not America, A rival gang smashes into Jet & his gang with a truck then peppers it with automatic fire yet Bob & Him survive?? would they not have checked they were dead??...the list is endless. I know you dont rent this for its deep meaningfull story but come on!

Simply Fantastic!

A super film that has more randoms than the the land of Random. It has a blind black man, a chinese piano playing killing machine, a young white girl with braces, the shop SPAR, and a fat cockney wideboy living in Glasgow that drives a white Jag? WTF...this film is simply superb! I would love to see a follow up called something like Crazy Cows And Penut Soup - yeah..thats random enough!!! Get this film and watch it...you will not be unhappy that you did!!

Good but mad as a box of frogs!

Absolutely nothing in this film makes any sort of sense at all! A fat cockney gangster living in glasgow creates the perfect killing machine. Killing machine decides he would rather live with a blind black piano tuner and his white step daughter, wear pyjamas and learn to play the piano. They know he is a nutter but keep him happy with ice cream and soup! Fat gangster wants him back and sends an army round who trash most of glasgow. 20 minutes of martial arts wizardry later and blind black piano tuner saves the day by hitting the fat gangster over the head with a plant! The most incredible thing about this film is that when I watched it all made perfect sense to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Amazing fight scenes and jet li behaves like a psychotic care bear throughout the entire movie. Watch the film, enjoy and then get some help!