Posted: 05/24/2005

Unleashed

(2005)

by Clint Fletcher

Finally! After six long months trapped in a dark cold world of action-less films, someone finally gets it right. For a while there I thought Assault on Precinct 13 was going to be the only true-blood kickass action picture for 2005.

Now, I am proud to add Unleashed to that list.

At first, I was very hesitant to see this movie. Sure the previews looked good, but someone started a vicious rumor that this was a sappy melodrama in disguise as an action flick. If I remember correctly, I even read a couple of reviews that said the movie only had about 5 minutes of action. Boy would I love to figure out who that was and stomp on their ass while my shoe is covered in gasoline and they’re already on fire. This baby is LOADED with some hardcore shoot-outs, hand-to-hand combat and fancy weaponry. Hell, I’ve even made it a personal agenda to watch this movie over again with a notepad and mark down how many limbs get visibly broken. Just what a guy wants to see! I think the title says it all because this tour de force doesn’t hold anything back and wears its violence badge proudly. But on top of this, the story and characters are actually interesting! What world do we live in?

Jet Li stars as Danny, a man raised exactly like a dog since he was a young boy. Who raised him? Mr. Smee himself, Bob Hoskins. I don’t know what it is with me and Hook but I can’t watch this dude without imagining the patch over his ear and the pirate hat on. So Smee had him trained to become a killer from day one, teaching him to obey and slaughter anyone of his choosing- that is as soon as he takes his dog collar off. We are witnessed to Danny’s brutal power in the opening, as he rips through dozens of useless thugs in just a second’s notice. But there’s always a downside. Since he was literally trained like a dog, locked in a cage at night and fed through bare minimum rations, this is also the ONLY thing he was taught. The little human words of the English language he does know are words he picked up along the way from his master. Well one day, Danny, Smee and his thugs get creamed by some other thugs in a car accident. Danny just barely survives and finds his way back to a place he remembers from a few days prior and meets a very blind Sam (Morgan Freeman). The kind soul that he is, Sam takes Danny back home with him to stay along with his step daughter, Victoria. Although a bit curious as to Danny’s past, Victoria and Sam spend months teaching Danny the many ways of the human. Then finally, Danny breaks out of his shell and learns to function in the human world. But just hours after he is finally able to take the collar off, his master pops up very much alive and slaps the collar back on. Then the real fun begins as Danny finally gathers up enough human balls and realizes he can destroy just about everyone around him, including his master.

My first complement must first go out to the cast. Freeman and Smee are good as always. No surprise there. But who really shocked me was Jet Li, turning in a deep and troubled performance that kept me engaged until the very last frame. Maybe he did well because he played a man that doesn’t understand English. I guess we’ll never know. My kudos also go out to the film’s director Louis Leterrier, who alongside Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen has been working hard to keep the action genre alive with flicks such as Kiss of the Dragon, The Transporter and the upcoming (and badass-looking) Transporter 2. The only difference is this time they actually managed to conjure up a decent story instead of putting the script on the back-burner in favor of action. Which leads me to my second complement- the action. These dudes come up with some pretty clever scenarios for their heroes (I always remember the oil fight from Transporter) and Unleashed is no exception. Any coherent way to put a jackhammer into the trusty hands of Jet Li is A-Okay in my book.

Ultra-violent, ultra-stylish and ultra-cool with a splice of human emotion, Unleashed is the perfect getaway from the rest of the shit Hollywood’s been dumping on us as of recent. As a movie fan, I’m deeply pleased. As an action fan, I’m God damn psyched.

Clint Fletcher is a critic and filmmaker in Chicago.

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