rating:
(out of
4 stars)France, United States; 2001
Directed by Chris Nahon; produced by Luc Besson, Steve Chasman, Happy Walters; screenplay by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Starring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, Eva Green, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Irons, Michael Sheen
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Kiss of the Dragon' is your typical action movie. We get everything what we
expect and when those expected things are done in a nice way we are
satisfied. In this movie I have to admit they are pretty nice, although some
things make no sense, and therefore I kind of liked this movie. At least I was
not bored.
Jet Li is a cop from China, betrayed by a French inspector named Richard
(Tcheky Karyo) and blamed for the killed men this betrayal caused. The story
is set in Paris. While escaping Li took a tape that will prove his
innocence, but Richard is able to get that back. Richard also keeps the
daughter of Jessica (Bridget Fonda) hostage so Jessica does everything he
does. She happens to be a hooker on the street, and she works right in front
of Li's hiding place. It is not hard to guess that Jessica can help Li to
get the tape and Li can help Jessica to get the daughter.
With an almost hopeless story like this other things must be good. They are.
The quiet Li does a fine job as the cop and his martial art scenes look
pretty good. One early scene reminded me of any Jackie Chan movie, with Li
using everything that comes on his path. Of course he does it less funny and
more violent, but it still looked good. In another great fight, more towards
the ending of the movie, Li faces a whole group of martial art masters. The
scene is great and the climax gave me a big laugh.
Of course we are talking about a movie with a hero. Thousands of bullets are
fired at him but with his invisible movie-shield he will not get hit. You
know this before the movie begins. If you don't like that, see something
else. You can also ask questions about the French inspector. He kind of
destroys a hotel, he opens fire on a bridge with lots of innocent people
around, he has some strange men working for him. He would probably be fired
after things like this, but the movie doesn't ask questions, so why should
we? In the end this is a simple but very entertaining movie.