Romeo Must Die

This is a pretty intriguing and action-packed movie starring Jet Li in one of his first Hollywood appearances. His plays former Chinese cop Han Sing who breaks out of prison after hearing of his brother's murder in Oakland. When he gets there, he gets entangled in a money scheme plot involving two rival families, where the daughter of a crime lord, Trish O'Day (Aaliyah), is also caught in the middle.

It's almost like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, but with Han and Trish caught in the chaos and them helping each other to stop the war and bring the criminals to justice. What resulted were some awesome martial arts sequences courtesy of Jet Li; seeing him grapple with the gang members left and right were both great and funny, especially him throwing around Anthony Anderson. The humor in the movie was also pretty top-notch and gave me some chuckles, but the acting was a bit average to me and the hip-hop soundtrack was pretty awful. However, Jet Li and Aaliyah had some great chemistry together; in her first motion picture, Aaliyah delivered a pretty witty and dramatic performance.

Overall, it's a good action film with a well-paced plot.

Grade B

The good of this movie was when Aaliyah was on the scene. The rest was rather senseless violence about gangs trying to out do each other. Jet Li was okay, but I don't think he's a good actor although he 's a very prolific one starring in over 60 movies. Although this was her acting debut, I think Aaliyah brought the goods to the table. She was just great as Trish. The play between Trish and Han (Jet Li) as an accidental cab driver was priceless, and the way they contrasted each other on screen with younger Trish actually in somewhat of a protective role to Han really added interesting plot twist to the story. Executive producer Joel Silver had lots of original ideas about movie making, and this one I would say is one of them. I don't go too much for the violence, but the movie was entertaining and original.

Let me start by saying I adore the late Aaliyah. For her first role, she did a pretty good job. She played the part well and this part was made for her. However, I enjoyed the soundtrack more than the movie itself. Not saying it was a horrible movie, it was just OK. I wish the fight scenes were more authentic. You could tell they were choreographed. When I watch a movie like this, I want it to look like people are really fighting each other. I also felt that Jet Li and Aaliyah lacked in the chemistry department. Sure, they look good together as friends and/or partners in crime, but nothing more and I mean nothing. Anything beyond that seemed forced. I actually felt the entire cast lacked in chemistry. There were a couple of twists that were unexpected and the plot was OK, but nothing to really knock your socks off. It is entertaining if nothing else is on TV, or if you just want to watch the beautiful Aaliyah in action. For me, it is a bit nostalgic for that reason. Also, I was still a teenager when this came out and this was the movie to watch at that time. Again, not the worst movie, but not the best. I will admit that I have probably watched this at least 5 times. Sometimes, I just can't say no because although it is not perfect, it is still entertaining.

"Romeo Must Die" is definetely the most violent "interpretation" of Shakespeare I`ve ever seen. Okay, interpretation is not the right word to use, but that is nevertheless what this movie at some point wants to be. I really liked Jet Li in this movie, and I`ve liked him since I first saw him in "Lethal Weapon 4" a couple of years ago. Fighting and betrayal is what "Romeo Must Die" is all about, and the fighting is very entertaining, although sometimes a bit cheesy, because some of the "Matrix-scenes", which is out of place outside the world of science-fiction. Still, "Romeo Must Die" is an actionflick you wouldn`t want to miss. It manages to be interesting enough, but the fighting is what makes it really good. 8/10

Romeo Must Die is the 1st and in my opinion, the better of the two hip hop/martial arts action films directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. The movie is pretty nicely shot and slick looking and actually is really well performed by the cast. The plot is loosely based off Romeo And Juliet, but don't expect anything artsy fartsy, this is an action movie with two warring crime families(one Chinese and the other African American). Aalyah is beautiful and gives a fine performance as love interest for Jet Li. Delroy Lindo and Issiah Washington give pretty solid performances as well. Russell Wong is a cool villain and comic relief Anthony Anderson is actually funny. My problem with the movie is the crazy wire fu sequences don't really work as well here as it would in Jet Li's movies from Hong Kong. I don't think Corey Yuen's fight choreography is bad, it just is out of place and not really suited for this movie. Thankfully DMX only has a cameo here, he was top billed in the other Andrzej Bartkowiak/Jet Li collaboration Cradle 2 The Grave and he was terrible in that movie. Overall, this is a pretty decent action movie that introduced Jet Li to new audiences, but I prefer his work in China/Hong Kong to his action movies made in the United States and Europe.