Diagonaldi
Very well executed
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
mraculeated
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Gary
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
LeonLouisRicci
Martial Arts Movie for Action Fans with Jet Li in Hyperdrive and the Carnage Never Stops. This is Comic-Book Stuff with Our (Super) Hero Displaying Powers Absent in Mortal Men. It is All Ramped Up, Over the Top, Very Violent, and the Movie Takes No Prisoners.Luc Besson from Behind the Scenes Delivers, Along with His Superstar Jet Li, an Action Movie that Pulls No Punches and is a Ride-Along of Ridiculous Fight Scenes that are Always a Hoot for Fans of this Type of Stuff. There is Plenty of Bang for the Buck.The French Detective can go a Few Beats too Far Pushing His Subordinates Around and Bridget Fonda as the Human Anchor Whore with a Heart of Gold and a Cute as a Button Daughter in Tow, May be at Least One Beat too Good to be True, but there had to be Something to Pause the Mayhem. She Does, but Only a Brief Pause and We're Back to Kicking Ass.Overall, with Very Little Wire Work, Jet Li Fans can File Back in Lock Step, and Action Movie Adrenaline Types will have Very Little to Gripe About. It is Nonsensical, Bone Crushing, Bloodletting with its Heart Buried Beneath the Brutality, but it is Pumping the Pathos Enough to Allow Some Humanity to Contrast the Otherwise Inhuman Villains.No Compromises Here, this is One that Delivers what it is Selling in an Ultra-Stylistic Ballet of Blood, Bone Snapping, and Bullets and it is One of Jet Li's Best.
SnoopyStyle
Liu Jian (Jet Li) is a Chinese secret agent arriving in Paris to take down a Chinese drug lord. His French contact is vice squad leader Inspector Richard (Tchéky Karyo). Only Richard is dirty and tries to frame him for the drug lord's killing. Jessica Kamen (Bridget Fonda) is an American farm girl forced into prostitution by Richard. He's holding her daughter in an orphanage. Liu Jian managed to grab the video tape showing Richard shooting the drug lord with his confiscated gun. Then by chance, he runs into Jessica again.This is a Luc Besson production and it has a lot of his touches. Bridget Fonda is back and they even use the laundry chute. It's got some fun Besson-like action. It helps a lot to have Jet Li fighting. The acupuncture needles are a little bit much. The fight in the office with the Twins is amazing. Tchéky Karyo is great at being the villain. The biggest problem I have is the big coincidence. It's beyond ridiculous and rings such a false note. With such a big city, she's hooking right in front of the store.
rzajac
I'm about to do something I've never done. I'm going to "review" this film after having turned if off about 15 minutes in.You don't have to ignore this review; just read it while keeping in mind the caveat that I turned "Kiss of the Dragon" off, 15 minutes in.It's simple really: 15 minutes in, I had no idea where the flick was headed. Now, the usual retort is to point out that a lot of flicks do that: They defer spelling out the underlying key plot points quite a ways into the flick. So why do I refuse to cut KotD the kind of slack that is due to a slow-burn sizzler storyline?Because KotD doesn't sizzle. In fact, one gets the sense that Besson is fully aware of the need to create tension of one kind or another in order to sustain things while the viewer gathers the data which will eventually pay off in a stunner revelation. But the data stream is... well, I was about to say bizarre... but bizarre is good! In fact, it might be a good idea at this point to mention his La Femme Nikita (the film). It sustains for a good, long while until the data is gathered because the leading action is bizarre *enough*. There's an amazing firehose of bizarrerie that keeps you alert and pondering, until the air clears and all the necessary pieces fall into place; well, at least, enough of the pieces to apprise you of the fact that you're watching an actual story.KotD opens with an unsatisfying, disconnected cubistic salad of cloak/daggerish visual and verbal cues, gangster scenarios, a hookers/john sequence that floats in an utter void, and a weird, utterly inexplicable 180 degree turnabout in the relationship between the crime boss and the new recruit--10 minutes into their relationship--which can't even be explained away as a spurious psychopathic lark on the part of the crime boss, let alone as a natural concomitant of the recruit's actions.I suppose that, if I'd hung with it, I'd've been able to metabolize that salad in some fashion. But, 15 minutes in, my question to myself was, "Why bother?"In the stuff I describe above, I don't mention Jet Li's lovely martial arts moves. And I left them out for a reason; because I wanted to preserve them from the disreputable notion that Besson thought they'd suffice to keep the viewer's attention.I think reviewing the first 15 minutes of this flick was worth doing-- there was so much to say!--so I did it. I hope you understand.
rowmorg
Action scenes galore, and superbly executed by Jet Li, who kills, seriously injures or knocks unconscious some 100 policemen in this picture. Finally he kills Insp. Richard (Tchéky Karyo) with the horrible "Kiss of the Dragon" acupuncture method whereby the paralysed Richard bleeds from every orifice before crashing dead to the floor. However, none of these characters has a clue about acting: only Ms. Bridget Fonda is capable of it and she emotes plenty as the whore with a heart of gold. However, you wonder what on earth she was doing accepting a meaningless role in a plot less and drama-free movie such as this. Shortly afterwards, she drove her car off a cliff and then got married and quit show business. It's not surprising, is it...