First there was ROMEO MUST DIE (2000), EXIT WOUNDS (2001) and HALF PAST DEAD (2002). Now Jet Li and DMX team up with producer Joel Silver for what is turning into a hip-hop martial arts sub-genre. The oddly titled CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE delivers on pumped up action and martial arts combat by sticking to tried and true conventions.

DMX shows more depth as a leading man by playing Tony Fait, a father who finds that his priorities change when his daughter is kidnapped as a result of his latest heist. His partners in crime include a sexy Gabrielle Union, a wise-cracking Anthony Anderson and a stoic Drag-On. Using high-tech gadgets and old fashioned distraction techniques, the crew manages to break into a securities vault and make off with a bundle of rare black diamonds.

Things begin to fall apart when Jet Li shows up playing Su, a Taiwanese government agent intent on recovering the diamonds and tracking down their owner, a criminal named Ling (Mark Dacascos). Ling is a former Taiwanese agent who stole the diamonds and went rogue. It turns out that the diamonds are actually mini-nukes capable of fueling weapons of mass destruction and Ling plans to sell them to the highest bidder with the aid of his accomplices including Kelly Hu. Ling kidnaps Tony’s daughter to get the diamonds back, but they end up in the hands of another criminal. With time running out, Tony is joined by Su and his gang of thieves in trying to get his daughter back, thwart Ling and recover the diamonds.

Like most modern Hollywood action films, CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE is a manufactured adrenaline rush packed with bombastic pop music, ultra-tight editing and completely improbable circumstances. It’s also full of memorable stunts and enough bone-crushing martial arts to rattle just about any action fan.

As a character, Jet Li has almost been pushed into a support role but not surprisingly, he still gets the flashiest stunts. Early on, he is seen on the outside of an apartment high-rise dropping from porch to porch. One aspect of his American films that I appreciate is a conscious effort to give each character a unique trait to his fighting technique. Early in this film he assumes a more relaxed posture and fights with one hand in his pocket. That’s not the case for a cage match brawl midway through. This is the film’s highest point when it comes to fighting and is probably the closest you’ll ever get to seeing Jet Li perform in a UFC match. He ends up taking on about a dozen burley fighters at once. Breaking up the scene is a wild chase as DMX on a quadrunner evades police by zipping over rooftops. By the end, three separate battles are all waging as Gabrielle Union tears into Kelly Hu, DMX takes on Woon Young Park and Jet Li takes on Mark Dacascos. The combination of split-second edits and constant changes between the three scenes makes the whole final act look something like an extended trailer.

The highly anticipated bout between Mark Dacascos and Jet Li rates as a bit of a disappointment. Mark is a world-class martial arts star of cult hits DRIVE and BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF who remains on the verge of superstardom. Along with being a versatile fighter capable of keeping up with the best of Hong Kong’s stuntmen, Mark is also a competent actor. He plays his character with flair, but the script fails to adequately flesh out his relationship to Li’s character and the conflict between the two lacks depth. Their fight (and the only one I might add) is given center ring status complete with a ring of fire, but the viewer is forced to contend with three separate fights simultaneously and the scenario too closely resembles Li’s finale in ROMEO MUST DIE. It’s also short and edited tightly in the same fashion as the rest of the film. But I will say it was good to see nevertheless and Mark is certainly one of few performers today who can match Li for athleticism, grace and intensity. I’ll hold out for a rematch.

Overall, the film is well balanced between a good amount of action and some humor provided by Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold. These two are becoming staples in Joel Silvers’ films as the official sidekicks. This is something Tom acknowledges in a humorous conversation the two engage in during the end credits that is worth sticking around for.

CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE is one of Li’s most brainlessly entertaining Hollywood films yet. Diehard fans of his Hong Kong classics will still have reason to complain over the MTV-style treatment and lack of creativity. But like Jackie Chan, Li seems to have found one method of staying in the mainstream and reaching young audiences with fare that’s good enough to reel you in while you hope for something better.

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