Cradle 2 The Grave

With the multi-national back-slapping of the Oscars becoming a hazy memory, it's time for some multi-racial arse-kicking to fill the gaping void... or possibly create one !

Everything seemed to be going well.   Breaking into the vault had been painless for Tony Fait (DMX) and one of his crew (Drag - On).  The other members of the crew - Tony (Anthony Anderson) and Daria (Gabrielle Union) - successfully kept the security guard occupied.  It was just as they were about to leave with the loot, including a cache of black diamonds, when the plan fell apart. Su (Jet Li), a Taiwanese government agent, has been pursuing the stones across the globe, and despite his martial arts expertise, doesn't succeed in getting them from Tony and his gang.  Someone else is also after the stones - Su's former partner, Ling (Mark Dacascos), but for globely disaterous reasons.  When Ling kidnaps Tony's only daughter, Vanessa (Paige Hurd), to do an exchange for the stones, Su and Tony realise that the best way to get what they both want is to team up together.  Now all they have to do is find out who re-stole the stones from Tony's friend Archie (Tom Arnold), get them back and take on Ling and his gang.  Easier said than done!

Now, the formula has worked well for Silver with his Die Hard and The Matrix offerings, but what they had in their favor was originality and charismatic characters.  Bruce Willis and Keanu Reeves were everyday people you could root for and the way their characters stories were told was unlike anything we'd seen before at the time.  The same cannot be said about Jet Li and DMX however. Li scowls his way through what little dialogue he's given and his fighting everyone with one hand in his pocket / behind his back presumably to make him look cool only makes him look bored every time he fights.  This boredom is reflected back to the audience which is not that good for a part martial arts movie.

Only the hilarious scene where Li has to fight EVERYONE at once in an illegal boxing ring raises any interest at all.  DMX's thief is balanced out by the fact that he's a devoted father who prays with his daughter every night but these moments of tenderness and goodness don't garner him with  any respect just laugh-out loud embarrassment.  The films' action sequences however are handled, if not superbly than at least adequately, with the quad bike chase through the streets and over the roof-tops being  the stand-out moment. Cradle 2 The Grave - another coffin for the action movie genre.