Momma told me to always say something nice about folks before bashing them mercilessly. So I’ll say this; Unleashed will probably be enjoyed by martial arts fans around the globe. Furthermore, hardcore Jet Li fans will delight in the new style of “dog-fu” this film showcases. Unfortunately, with all that said, the good news is hard to come by.
The problem with Unleashed isn’t how the film looks or feels it’s the basic plot premise. The audience is asked to believe one initial ludicrous conceit; that a man could be trained as a dog, and once we’ve come to grips with that fact we are asked to consider the idea of him being untrained. He’s not bright enough to grasp that he’s been trained as a pup, but just bright enough to undo all that training when the time comes. That’s the deal. Satisfied? For me that’s an awful lot to ask in the name of a good action film.
The main character, dog-man Danny (Jet-Li) is kept in seclusion by his tyrannical master (Bob Hoskins) and only released when dirty deeds (like killing people) need to be done. Danny is an expert at these dirty deeds and the opening sequences show us just how effective he can be when called upon. Thankfully everyone is content to engage him only in hand-to-hand combat. Yes, yes, I know this is a basic martial arts covenant so I won’t harp on it. What does deserve harping, however, is the work of Kerry Condon as Danny’s love interest, Victoria.
Let’s assume there is a world where kind families take in strange dog like men who show up bleeding at their door. Let’s stay on that track and assume these families generally are made up of blind men and precocious young women who play piano at a world class level, and just for giggles let’s take it one step further and figure that these people would grow to love our hero, and train him to be a real boy. Once you’ve accepted all that, can you also take a bad actor in the female slot? One who has cringe worthy dialogue throughout? One who isn’t near attractive enough to make you forget she’s butchering the movie? It’s tough, and it’s a tough role for her. I don’t know if someone else could have done a better job or not, maybe the part just isn’t there, but I do know I kept wishing she’d get hit by a semi. That can’t be good.
At the end of the day Unleashed is a film that usually looks cool, generally tries, but in the end adds up to nothing. It’s not going to get crossover crowds because the story isn’t strong enough. It’s not going to be a martial arts classic because there are only four or five “real” fight scenes in the 90 minute run-time. In the end Unleashed is simply filler, sound and fury signifying nothing.
