Review of Kiss of the Dragon (2001) by Nathan R — 28 May 2009

Jet Li vehicle, which races impressively through Paris kicking ass throughout its improbable journey. The acting is more than serviceable for a film of this kind and, importantly, ensures you care enough about the fate of the characters.

Jet Li, while lacking the charisma of Bruce Lee or the humour of Jackie Chan, is nevertheless very watchable, even when in non-fight mode. Bridget Fonda as the hooker is excellent, and succeeds in introducing certain pathos into all the mayhem.

And what mayhem there is. A five-star hotel is soon crackling with the sound of crushed bones and body parts tumbling down the laundry chute. This is followed by an equally posh tourist boat getting trashed in glorious technicolour.

The real standouts, though, are saved for the last as our hero dispatches battalions of bad guys and classrooms of Kung Fu cops. The dreaded CRS (French riot police) take a real bashing, which must have gone down a treat with French audiences.

Finally, the super-bad guy gets his when he is 'kissed by the dragon' as the title has it. I won't reveal what such a smooch entails, suffice to say that it's slow, bloody and lovingly filmed in close-up.

It's that kind of movie.