Romeo Must Die

In fact, it had to happen, given the dismal state of formal education in America, where Garth Brooks and Ricky Martin are held up with reverence and false-god worship and high school graduates can't tell you who Mark Twain was or what he was credited with writing.

The dumbing-down of the classics, is what I am talking about. The watering-down of Shakespeare so the otherwise muddle-headed unwashed masses can get a fast-and-loose understanding of him and his works:

"Romeo Must Die".

Of course, given the success of such cinematic efforts as "China Girl" and "Romeo + Juliet", decidely ethnic interpretations of Shakespeare, it was certain that another ethnic effort would be forthcoming. Here it is: An Asian and African-American rendition.

Not that this is a bad thing. It isn't. Part of the success, the endurance of Shakespeare is his ability to transcend a given group of people, to appeal to all.

Unfortunately, although loosely based on a Shakespearean premise--children of battling family factions falling in love--this movie is buried and subsequently suffocated under a wheezy, creaky, garden-variety martial arts flick.

Jet Li, the Hong Kong martial arts action star (see: "Lethal Weapon 4", I think it is), stars in "Romeo Must Die" as Han Sing, once a cop, now burdened with the rap for a crime he didn't commit.

The movie opens on him, in prison, in Hong Kong, where it is learned his brother is killed after a fight at a dance club. Of course Sing breaks out of jail to travel to America where his brother was killed to avenge the murder. In Oakland, California, where much of the story transpires, he meets Trish O'Day (the singer Aaliyah, in her first big movie role), they fall in love, and--

Predictable? Of course. It's Shakespeare.

But never mind.

--she helps him to investigate his brother's death.

Things are not as simple as they might first seem. In quick order it comes out her father, Isaak (Delroy Lindo), may know more about the death than he should, and soon these two lovers (star-crossed or otherwise) are caught up in a war between Chinese and black interests who are involved in a confusing plot of sorts to acquire the waterfront for a new sports stadium, through which the usual money-laundering efforts crime interests are infamous for may flow. Not that this matters, because this element of the story line exists soley for elaborate martial arts sequences which Jet Li dances and leaps and bounces through. (Though not as good as Jackie Chan.)

Go To Page: 1 2