Kiss of the Dragon

In Kiss of the Dragon, Jet plays a Chinese cop in Paris, who is framed for the murder of a businessman. When the tape proving his innocence is seized, he must enlist the help of a hooker (Bridget Fonda), who was at the scene of the crime. From the moment Jet Li accidentally walks into a room of black-belts and proceeds to stick fight his way out in spectacular fashion, this movie is non-stop blistering top-notch action. It's a shame, though, that this scene occurs one hour and twenty minutes into the film, and what precedes it is a rather tedious, unoriginal and predictable mish-mash of action movie clichés. Jet Li co-wrote Kiss of the Dragon with producer Luc Besson, which only goes to show that he can't write as well as he can fight.

"Kiss of the Dragon" is just more of the same Jet Li. In this flick, Li plays a super cop from China who arrives in Paris on a mission. From there it turns itself into the usual convoluted mess with kung fooey as nauseam. Fonda is a bright spot in this ordinary flick as a likeable hooker who wants no more than to be reunited with her little girl (sniff, sniff). Bottom line? If you like Jet Li flicks, you'll like this one. If you don't, stay away. If you do watch, be sure to stick around for the ending. (C+)

This was a great action film with wonderful photography all around the City of Paris, France. Some of the scenes had tourists running for their lives as Jet Li(Liu Jian),"Cradle 2 the Grave,"'03,fought off his many enemies right in front of the Eiffel Tower and a tourist sightseeing boat. There was lots of blood and gore through out the entire picture. Bridget Fonda,(Jessica),"Monkeybone",'01, gave a very outstanding performance as a hooker and greatly involved with the crooked police and the great desire to be a caring and loving mother of her baby girl. Jessica runs into Liu Jian in a Chinese establishment and all kinds of hell breaks loose, she even attempts to pee in public which gets Liu Jian's complete attention. If you like Bridget Fonda and Jet Li films, this is the film for you!

As I get older I find I want more and more from media. I know that if I had seen this movie 15 years ago I would have put it on my top 100 all time favorites. Now, the plot holes really bother me, the evil French Cop is just pathetic, and Bridget/Jet have looked a lot better else where. The action is good. The action is fun. The Black Pimp enforcer is phenomenal. Burt Kwouk made something out of nothing as the shrimp chip guru. But I think I was being very generous giving it a five, as I would rather shake hands with a politician than view it again.

This is one of those guilty pleasure movies for me. Jet Li is a stranger in Paris, arriving to right some wrongs. The movie presents some wonderful fight scenes with Jet Li. I especially love the battles with the "twins", two look-alike bodyguards. The beautiful Bridget Fonda, a truly underrated actress, stars as a woman who has been victimized and forced into prostitution. And though this movie came out in 2001, US police forces are just now receiving training to identify similar victims of sex slavery. The movie's title is referenced in almost the final scene but is well worth the wait. Gosh, it is fun!

All in all a nice action flick, a dark atmosphere and some nice villains, who obviously must die by the hand of the Jet. What is wrong about this movie is the way it is filmed, you can see Jet Li throwing some moves, but you can't see them right!! What a waste, the camera is too close, the shots are too short, it looks like MTV sometimes. Still this movie outranks the abysmal 'Romeo must die', so you could say Jet Li's non-asian movies are getting better. If you want to see Jet Li doing some nice moves in a western movie, check out Lethal Weapon 4, that movie isn't very good either but at least it allows you to see what Jet Li can do. Hopefully 'the One' will get it right in being a decent action flick directed by someone who knows how to film martial arts scenes.