Dead Cant Rant

This movie was obviously written for one reason: to put Jackie Chan and Jet Li in a fight scene. A really, really, really long fight scene. That said, it’s actually a much better movie than I expected. I figured I would see a pretty lame flick that was written around one fight scene. Instead I saw a pretty decent teenager-growing-up movie.

This is a basic quest plot: Geeky boy is obsessed with kung fu but has no skills and is a wallflower. Boy is pushed into a position where he has to leave his current situation and begin a quest to return the magical staff of an immortal so the land can be rid of a despotic tyrant. Boy meets girl. Boy learns much about himself and being a man. Boy returns home and kicks butt. Roll credits.

If you can overlook the completely unexplained transition from modern day to ancient China (umm.. it’s magic?) this is a fun movie, though I did think the fight scene between Jackie Chan and Jet Li was kind of boring because with both of them being leading action stars neither one was really allowed to clean the other’s clock, not even in a back-and-forth Rocky/Hulk Hogan style, which I think would have been much more interesting.

The sacrifice of a main character at the end provided a nice twist from the usual Hollywood ending, though of course they had to make things “right” once he came back to the modern world. And watch for Jackie Chan and Jet Li each playing two characters — Li’s is fruity, but Chan’s is pretty cool.