Unleashed – Danny the Dog (2005)

Directed by: Louis Leterrier | 103 minutes | action, drama | Actors: Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry Condon, Scott Adkins, Andy Beckwith, Christian Gazio, Michael Jenn, Vincent Regan, Silvio Simac, Carole Ann Wilson

It looks like Luc Besson was in the mood for an easy fight movie. Although the story still follows a certain line, the film has a moderately thought out script and everything leads to as many fight scenes as possible. The fight choreography was done by none other than Yuen Wo Ping who also coordinated the fights in ‘The Matrix’ (1999). Someone who wants to renovate their bathroom in a few minutes soon can get a number of useful tips from it. Yet even the pugnacious types don’t really get their money’s worth with this film. The strokes are mainly very fast, so that the beauty of a martial art is lost. The few slow-motion scenes that are occasionally edited in between can’t rectify this.

Cheap and unrealistic is the Pavlov effect that Danny gets when unbuckling his belt. And that goes for several pieces of information in this movie. Everything revolves around saving an innocent boy from the big bad underworld and the fantasy is sometimes hard to find. For example, an obvious association with Ray Charles immediately arises at the entrance of the ‘piano man’ Sam (Morgan Freeman), who wears dark sunglasses because he is blind. Although this idea came from Morgan Freeman himself, who gave his character a very own interpretation than Leterrier had in mind for him. Sam’s daughter Victoria is the innocent eighteen-year-old girl with the underwired mouth who talks just a little too much. She also plays the piano, which is Mozart’s most broken piece of music. But it becomes very childish when Bart’s Danny has to enter the fighting arena to take out his opponents and Danny screams in a childish way: “No more fighting!”

Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman are actually the only two factors that keep the film somewhat afloat. They are not the least players and succeed in creating an oppressive and charismatic character. The music enhances the atmosphere in the right way and was composed especially for this film by the British band Massive Attack. Something they’ve never done before. Jet Li is also a well-known name in the fighting film industry and shows more emotions in this film than ever. There may even be a few jokes, but it is not really palpable. The big names who worked on this project can hardly save the bland story and the mediocre fight scenes.