Unleashed DVD Review

"UNLEASHED" reviews

DVD

UNLEASHED

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-11-18 16:32:20

Provider

DVD Review

Unleashed sounds like the best Spinal Tap album never made. We can but dream! This is actually the latest film from Luc Besson's head (Leon, The Fifth Element) - he produces here - and it gets its title from the collar gangster Bob Hoskins removes from Jet Li's neck when he wants to set him on unforthcoming debtors. Besson is the writer here too while Louis Leterrier directs and between them they gave this Glasgow-set film a madcap edge that possibly promises to be more fun than it really is.

Li is Danny, Bart's (Hoskins) pet attack 'dog', a disturbed man-animal who Hoskins keeps in a cage with only a teddy bear for company (he might recall Mongo in Blazing Saddles to the more mischievous mind). Enter Sam (Morgan Freeman), who sets about taming the savage beast, taking him on boat rides, feeding him ice cream and teaching him how to play the piano. He also sparks Danny's investigation into his mother's death which, inevitably, leads back to Bart.

Freeman adds calm to the movie, a necessary device in a film full of freaks, but ultimately the film is about Danny, even if he sometimes goes an age without so much as speaking. Jet Li is, of course, hired for his fighting more than his acting skills, but Besson and Leterrier could do more to flesh his character beyond its comic strip bones. Unleashed is a decent idea, but not for the first time in Besson's career, there's rather less to it than meets the eye.

Copyright © 2005.