Given this track record, it's probably no coincidence that he recently
returned to China to make a film for the first time in years - the by all
accounts breathtaking Hero. In the meantime we have Cradle 2 The Grave in
which he co-stars with one of the co-stars of the previous film of this
film's director who, as it happens, also directed Romeo Must Die. Well, my
wait is over, because C2TG is terrific.
The plot has been seen plenty times before but it's serviceable, involving
as it does jewel thieves, international terrorists and kung fu cops. When
Tony Fait steals a cache of black diamonds, he has no idea what he's
getting mixed up in. As it turns out, the diamonds are in fact a new form
of weapons grade plutonium and soon everyone is looking for them, from
local gangsters to dangerous arms dealers to a mysterious Chinese agent.
Things turn ugly when Fait's young daughter is kidnapped and ransomed in
exchange for the stones. This proves a tricky proposition as he is no
longer in possession of them and so must team up agent Su who is trying to
get them back for the Taiwanese government.
The biggest plus points as I see them are twofold - an appealing cast and a
sense of humour. Even Tom Arnold has some funny moments, for goodness sake.
Dacascos makes for a genuinely villainous villain (it all happened very
quickly, but I'm sure I saw him dealing out what may be cinema's first ever
death-by-lobster impaling) and the other supporting players do much more
than just make up the numbers. I must confess to having no idea who your
man DMX is other than he was in the aforesaid Exit Wounds which, as it
featured the mighty Steven Seagal, I avoided on point of principal, but on
this evidence he can volley bad guys up and down alleys with the best of
them.
Clearly, the biggest selling point was always going to be the action, and
C2TG delivers big time. The fights are crisp and bone crunching and the
stunts are exciting and fresh, if sometimes a little over-edited. One early
sequence, where Li drops down a building from balcony to balcony, is the
most eye poppingly audacious thing I've seen in quite a while.
Li is obviously a legend, and he's good enough here to spend the majority
of the film auditioning for the remake of Bad Day at Black Rock, given that
90% of the beatings he administers are done with one hand in his pocket.
When he does finally stop playing with his loose change, you know some
serious name taking is going to ensue, and the scene in which he faces up
to several dozen bare knuckle fighters inside a cage is a cracker. If it
all gets a bit too preposterous towards the end and the heisters with
hearts of gold thing is a little hard to swallow, you shouldn't worry so
much, 'cos it's been damn good fun. Oh, and answers on a postcard if you
know why the hell it's called Cradle 2 The Grave.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
