Review of Unleashed (2005) by Allan C — 03 May 2016

Writer/Producer Luc Besson mines his action film formula again of a sad abused character finding hope, then losing hope, and then getting a happy ending (i.e. "The Professional," "The Transporter," "The 5th Element," etc.

). He flips his formula a bit here though because the sad abused character is usually rescued by a stronger, often reluctant, hero. In this iteration of that formula, Jet Li plays the sad abused Danny, a man who has been raised since he was a boy to essentially be an attack dog for crime boss Bob Hoskins.

What's different in this formula is that Jet Li plays the strong character and he's rescued by blind piano player Morgan Freeman, who shows him there life outside of being Hoskins abused attack dog.

The film's original title was "Danny the Dog" which give you an idea of how Li is treated in the film. It's a pretty far fetched story, but Li give a sincere performance and and Hoskins and Freeman lend the film lot of credibility (more than it probably deserves).

The great Yuen Wo Ping was the martial arts choreographer on the film and delivers a number of scrappy fight scenes that are a marked contrast to his usual balletic and fluid fight scenes he's most often known for (everything from "Iron Monkey" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill").

The film was directed by Louis Leterrier, who co-directed the Transporter films with Corey Yuen (who on the later films was credited with directing the fight sequences). Overall, this film has a pretty ridiculous premiss, but it's done with a surprising amount of conviction and stylishly directed, but best of all is some spectacular fight sequences by Li and Woo Ping.