Unleashed review

certificate_18

UNLEASHED

If the idea of Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins and Jet Li in a gang warfare-meets-classical music movie sent in Glasgow sounds like your thing, then Unleashed is just about as good as it gets. An extremely silly yet ultimately enjoyable action film, it certainly has an unusual plot for a martial arts caper yet thanks to some strong performances, incredible action sequences and having its heart in the right place it somehow manages to work.

Jet Li stars as Danny, a young man who has literally been kept as a dog for most of his life by his extremely violent gang boss (Bart, played with relish by Bob Hoskins). Danny is kept in a cage and fed out of cans and forced to wear a lock around his neck, taken off only when Bart needs him to wreak havoc on his enemies. And that is most certainly what he does, beginning with an opening sequence that pulls no punches in terms of violence and visual flair.

Conditioned to have no thoughts of his own, Danny's life is changed when on one mission he is left to wait in a large warehouse containing old pianos. Enter Sam (Freeman), a blind piano tuner full of the joys of life, and soon enough Danny has escaped his fate of being a perpetual killer and is holed up with Sam and his step-daughter Victoria (Kerry Condon).

If there's a faintly preposterous air to the plot, the film has enough conviction about it to not only get away with it but to evoke some emotion towards Danny's situation. Given few lines to speak, Li is a sympathetic figure, whose childish wonderment at discovering the real world is believable, and his putative romance with Victoria is well-portrayed.

But this is a Jet Li movie after all, and the action is never far away. When it comes it is spectacular, with some of the best hand-to-hand fighting in recent memory. It's hugely violent, but since the world of the film is so far detached from the real world, its comic book appeal outweighs any concerns about excess. In fact, even more of the combat - incredibly well-staged - would have been welcome.

The film is written and produced by Luc Besson, and he gives Danny the same existential disaffection that plagued Christopher Lambert in Subway and Jean Reno in Leon. With The Transporter's director Louis Leterrier firmly pushing the boundaries of style as well as Freeman and Hoskins on full throttle, it's far more enjoyable than you might expect.

Paul Hurley