Not your everyday action flick...

Unleashed is really two movies, both of which are very well done. The combining of the two, however, is where the film falls short of excellence. Luckily, the reach of the filmmakers - which does exceed their grasp - is high enough that they've ended up with a good film.

The set-up is simple enough. Bart, played with great violence and vigor by Bob Hoskins, is a small time criminal with a unique and effective weapon that he uses to collect the money owed him: Danny the Dog. Danny - Jet Li - is a man that Bart has raised from childhood as an ultraviolent dog. When Danny's collar is on, he's passive and blank; when his collar comes off, he beats people senseless or even kills them, all at Bart's command. At the end of the day, Bart throws Danny back into his cage under the floor in Bart's office/warehouse.

The first third of the movie takes place in this world, allowing Li and fight coordinator Wu Ping to show some impressive fight scenes with a very mindless and merciless fighting style designed for this film. The fight scenes are filmed without many cuts, allowing Li's excellence in martial arts to show through. The fight scenes are truly excellent and impressive.

Then comes the other half of the movie, the dramatic birth of Danny as a human being through the open family of Morgan Freeman and his step-daughter. The two take Danny in - following a hit that allows Danny to wander from the assumed dead Bart - and let him take the slow steps to becoming a person instead of a dog. The family dynamic that emerges works well as Danny's totally blank slate is allowed to explore the world and learn what is happening around him. This part of the film works well, too.

The problem comes when the two halves of the movie have to come together a couple of times later in the film. The two halves work well, but the merging of the halves is a bit abrupt.

This is a good film. It's a good attempt to create a dramatic film with action fitting into the storyline. It's far from a perfect film, though the two parts are excellent separately. If you're a fan of martial arts films, give this one a try. I'd head more toward Li's film Hero for a perfect blend of the dramatic and martial arts.

On an interesting side note, the film was released as Danny the Dog in most non-US markets, the second film by director Luc Besson to get this retitling here in the US.