Cradle 2 the Grave

A thief steals a stash of black diamonds and this accidentally involves his family in an international terrorist plot since the diamonds are not just your typical diamonds. He joins forces with a mysterious guy who is dressed in all black and can kick serious ass with his martial arts skills to set things right. And, of course, kill the bad guys.

The plot is pretty silly, but the action is decent so if you just want to see a cheesy action movie, this is a pretty good choice. However, the film tries hard to have a dramatic and thriller edge that is just laughable. It tries to go push itself into a larger scope by the end. That is where you'll either tell yourself that you enjoyed the movie, or whether the whole thing just crashed and burned for you. However there is a good array of stunts and Jet Li shows off what he does best (again). However, at the same time the some of the action scenes seem to beg you into thinking that they are good with their fast paced editing and slow mo that doesn't really manage to cover up much of their mediocrity.

Basically it is just a direct-to-video action movie, but with star power. It was that, and only that, which provided it with its theater run. --- 5/10

Rated R for violence and profanity

If you are in for some entertainment, if you like rap music, and/or martial arts films you will enjoy the music. If you prefer good art cinema, or you really look for logic even in the fun films, this one is not for you. I enjoyed it, but I am not sure that my other, more serious ego would have liked the film in any other situation. This film (can somebody explain me the title) is just entertainment, but what are the James Bond films? 6 out of 10 on my personal scale.

Tony Fait is a head of a gang of thieves who are on a job to steal a bag of black diamonds. Inspector Su from Taiwan is out to stop them. The gang succeed but find themselves with both Su and crime lord Ling after the diamonds. Fait takes them to his friend Archie to have them valued but a local mobster has them stolen. To make matters worse Ling kidnaps Fait's daughter and demands the diamonds. Fait and Su join forces to get the diamonds back from the mobster, rescue Fait's daughter and bring down Ling.

I was in the UK watching a tape of the NBA All-Star game that someone had taped off US TV for a friend. Fast forwarding the adverts a movie trailer caught my eye - the trailer for this movie. Dacascos and Jet Li in a movie together! Gotta see that! I couldn't wait and was excited when I saw it coming to the UK sooner than I'd expected. So I went to see it, not expecting art but hoping for a good ride.

I was a little let down but not too much. The film has some good scenes that almost manage to hide the inherent weaknesses in script, plot, editing, direction, acting etc etc. Let me start with the plot. Now I didn't expect wonders and I didn't get them - however the film pushes things too far by making the film about a world threat - a leap of faith too far for me. The actual script is full of so many clunky lines you won't believe. Little of it sounds like people actually talking.

The main weakness were direction and editing. You see I can for Jet Li et al fighting and for action. However the fight scenes and actions scenes are edited together and directed with a frantic touch. I'd prefer to see Li at work than constantly trying to keep up with the camera switches. I can understand why they do this (many of the actors must have done their scenes one move at a time) but with Jet Li it loses much of his power to not be able to follow his moves. Some of the action works well and is exciting but too often it is just frantic direction and noise.

The cast are passable but none really excel themselves. Li is good but not fully used. He has yet to have a film that really showcases his skills. Here he has some good moves but the direction spoils them. DMX is a good rapper (I like his joints) but he can't act anywhere near well enough to manage the scenes with his `daughter' - they are awful! Outside of these he is OK but he has NO chemistry with Li. Also he doesn't convince as a ninja (!), when he runs up a wall 15 minutes into the film it just looks silly. Tom Arnold and Anderson are pretty poor as the comedy sidekicks and really just clutter the film with characters (more later). I didn't know Union was in this till I sat down, but she makes a mark. She may be shameless eye candy (I like to think I'm above these shameless crowd pleasers) but she is very hot eye candy! She does a dance in the film that is pretty pointless in terms of plot, but is worth the price of admission alone! Kelly Hu is not used well at all and her losing her cat fight towards the end is unlikely. The biggest let down for me was Mark Dacascos. I know the guy does a lot of tat but he is one of my favourite actors. I was looking forward to him and Li fighting at the end (both have skills) but again it was spoilt by bad direction and the editing of 5 other scenes in with it.

The soundtrack is heavy but it is really poorly used. The makers just seemed to drop hip hop tracks in at random with little context. The opening credits worked well and the use of DMX's `X gonna bring it to ya' really compliments the onscreen action, but mostly they just seemed thrown in to draw a certain demographic.

Overall I did enjoy this film. It has enough noise and dumb action to just about cover the weaknesses while you are watching it. However it is pretty exploitative and excessive. Did we need to have EVERYTHING blow up in the end - no. Did we need to Gabrielle Union sexily stripping - no (but it was worth it!). It's not original and it is banged up with clichés (ring of fire showdown), and it's is inherently weak. But lets be honest we came for action, and it is just about passable in that. Worth a watch if you keep your expectations low.

"Cradle 2 The Grave" is an action movie by the same people who brought you Romeo Must Die and Exit Wounds... And it shows. Skeleton-thin story, two-dimensional characters, and action for action's sake. Usually when you watch an action movie - not always, but usually - the action scenes serve as a means to tie the story together. In this movie, the exact opposite is true. Therefore, the flow of narrative serves only to fill the gaps between scenes where Jet Li unleashes Wushu fury on his opponents, who for the most part tend to be guys who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The action is well done, don't get me wrong, but for some reason Jet Li just seems uncomfortable here. Perhaps it's just the role he was given, but for some reason he never quite "clicked" with everything else that was going on.

Another gripe I had about the movie is that we're told who everyone is by other characters. Instead of showing Jet's history with the villain portrayed by Mark Dacascos, we just hear Jet saying "We used to be on the same side, he betrayed us, etc. etc." This keeps things going along at a fast pace, but personally I like my movies fleshed out a little bit - even a flashback scene would have been enough. Since it's not, the final battle really doesn't mean anything. Oh well, I guess I'm just asking too much.

I suppose that after "Kiss of the Dragon" and even "The One" I was expecting Jet Li's U.S. track record to improve, not slide backwards 3 years, to "Romeo Must Die" status. Perhaps after "Hero" is released state side we'll start getting some good projects from Li. Until then, we'll have to deal with more DMX (Get At Me, Dawg!) movies.

For now, I'll continue to watch Fist of Legend. If you haven't, I recommend you see that rather than this.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Cradle 2 the Grave. A week before it came out I hit the official web page and was excited to learn that Mark Dacascos (The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Brotherhood of the Wolf) and Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King, X-Men 2) were in the movie. The real reason I was waiting for the movie was of course Jet Li.

Over all, I have to say that the movie left me unimpressed. DMX gives a terrible performance. It's not consistently bad, but when he breaks out into highly emotional scenes he stinks.

Tom Arnold is also in this movie, and is funny in his Tom Arnold way. He's basically the comedic relief, exploiting his fish-out-of-water position (he's a middle age white guy who's main associates throughout the movie are young African-Americans) for laughs. And love or hate the guy, he will make you laugh. He's good in supporting roles, just think of him in True Lies. Similar effect here.

Bad dialogue and acting can be forgiven, but two things are unpardonable: Not giving Jet Li enough to do, and the misuse of Mark Dacascos and Kelly Hu. Apparently they forgot that Jet Li is an international star, and while DMX is known for his music he can't act to save his life. The primary focus of the story should have been on Jet Li's character, not DMX's. Simple common sense--use your star. The star of this movie ain't DMX, it's Jet Li.

Those who have seen Mark Dacascos in Brotherhood of the Wolf know that he can kick some serious tail. All that is wasted since his fight with Jet Li is a pathetically wasted effort, and his only fight in the movie. Kelly Hu, an emerging star soon to be seen in X-Men 2, should have been given more screen time. Sure, she has a fight, but one can't help but feel that she also was misused.

Kung-Fu and Hip-Hop are a bad mix. Producer Joel Silver can't seem to get that through his head, and I doubt he will anytime soon since Cradle 2 the Grave took the number one spot at the box office on it's opening weekend. The fact of the matter is Jet Li carries this mediocre effort all the way. That's a lot of weight for one man to carry, but he does it. Hopefully he'll get back to starring in movies that exhibit his abilities, not stick him in the passenger seat of a stinker driven up by a recording artist.