Romeo Must Die
2000
Cast: Jet Li, Aaliyah, Isiah Washington, Russell Wong, Delroy Lindo, DMX, DB Woodside, Henry O, Anthony Anderson
Genre: Action
Worldwide Box Office Gross: over $91 million
Plot: An avenging cop seeks out his brother's killer and falls for the daughter of a businessman who is involved in a money-deal with his father
'More West Side Story Than Romeo & Juliet, Yet Still Worthy Viewing For Martial Arts Movie Junkies'
The classic tale of star-crossed lovers is given the mobster movie makeover spiked with racial politics and interwoven with martial arts. In Oakland, San Francisco, the streets are ruled by two rival gangs: the American gangs and Chinese triads. When the son of a Chinese boss is murdered, his brother, Han Sing -who is currently serving time in jail -, escapes and heads to the U.S to get hold of his killers. Along the way, Han runs into Trish, and the pair hit it off immediately. Unknownst to Han, Trish is the daughter of the gang leader, of whom Han believes are the men responsible for his brother's killing.
Jet Li was first introduced to mainstream western audiences back in 1998 as the bad guy in Lethal Weapon IV playing opposite the leads, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover whereby he was a considerable onscreen presence in a weary franchise that lost its mojo. It was a matter of time until he was given his starring Western vehicle via a Hollywood movie: for Jackie Chan, it was Rush Hour and for Jet Li, it was Romeo Must Die.
Producer of Lethal Weapon IV Joel Silver created a movie around Li combining kung fu with hip hop in a style that relied upon slo-mo action shots and wired stunts, whereas three different writers had a hand in penning the story; one of them wrote Virtuosity, the Denzel Washington & Russell Crowe flop. At this point in time, Jet Li was hot property in Hollywood as the IT guy for action movies & was seen as the successor to Jackie Chan.
The film has enough plot to get me invested in the story and the characters and surprisingly, I was engaged from beginning to end; yet there are reservations when it comes to the casting albeit for Aaliyah, whereas Li could have been given more lines to work with, and elements of the story have not aged well today. One major issue this film has is despite being the leading character, the film via Silver and Bartkowiak, tend to rely on Li for the stunts and fight scenes, more so than his acting, and this held the film back a little. Alasforth, the movie should thank its lucky stars that it had Aaliyah and Delroy Lindo to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of dialogue and when it came to the emotive and dramatic scenes. The rest of the cast were all right, but none of them truly stood out.
The late R&B singer, Aaliyah was cast in the pivotal role as Trish Day, the daughter of the gangster, who finds herself as a pawn to her father, and brother's business. Her performance was engaging, natural and convincing and I was drawn to her character. If her demise hadn't ended so soon and in such unfortunate circumstances, then there would have been no doubt that Aaliyah would have had a promising career as a movie actress. On the other hand, Aaliyah and Jet Li's chemistry feels more platonic than romantic.
Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, this was far better than I'd anticipated that it would be and is the superior movie compared to Cradle to the Grave, narrative-wise. & Romeo Must Die is so much better than the (dire) Exit Wounds, even if the formula is derivative and predictable as we have seen in millions of other action films. The action here is somewhat average, but it was still watchable.
Final Verdict:
Romeo Must Die has its critics no doubt, and yes, it is not that demanding, but from a subjective viewing experience, there was a lot more that I enjoyed here, in the sense that I was entertained and engrossed in the plot. Yet Romeo Must Die has a lot more in common with West Side Story than Romeo & Juliet. Overall, it's overly decent fare, which could have been a whole lot better.
But still, I had a pleasant time with this one.
Overall:
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