Rating: 6 out of 10, my wife and I saw this movie one evening on a cable channel and she insisted that I get it. It is a pretty good kung fu drama set in Paris with the incomparable Jet Li in the lead role as a Chinese police officer betrayed in Paris by his French counterpart played by Karyo. This is a Luc Besson product which means stilted dialogue and wild, out of control villains. Karyo, who is usually so good, is abominable in this as the chief villain. He shouts 90% of his lines for no good reason and shoves anybody in his vicinity. Karyo is surrounded by a large group of fellow villains who serve pretty much as cannon fodder for Li. Fonda plays a kind hearted, heroin addicted hooker who teams up with Li to take down Karyo. As with most of Besson's projects there are plot holes large enough to hold a small country but that's half the fun. I mean, I know Li is good, but when he walks into a police kung fu baton armed class of 30 unarmed and emerges 5 minutes later completely unscathed, the suspension of disbelief is severely strained. This is simply a vehicle for Li to demonstrate his fighting skills and these are prodigious and he doesn't fall into Jackie Chan type cuteness - its all lethal intent - which I liked. The movie really stumbles between fight scenes or whenever Karyo is on screen, again, very surprised by that.
MVP: Jet Li as the put upon police officer Liu Jian shines
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