FBMR - Unleashed
Film-Buff Movie Reviews


UNLEASHED (2005) ***

I was pleasantly surprised with this film. It wasn’t just your usual run-of-the-mill martial arts flick. It had more depth than I expected. And Jet Li was very convincing playing a man who’s been trained and treated like a dog. He had very dog-like gestures and reactions that may have looked silly, but actually worked.

Danny (Jet Li) is as close to being a human “dog” as can be, thanks to brutal treatment from gangster Bart (Bob Hoskins), who uses Danny as a strictly obedient “enforcer”. But when Danny meets a gentle piano tuner named Sam (Morgan Freeman), he is reminded of his childhood, his mother, and longs to break free from Bart’s dog collar.

The story was touching. The relationship between Sam and Danny was heart-warming. Bart was one scary, scary man. The fight scenes were also quite stunning. Enough to satisfy the macho and the sensitive.