Starring: Jet Li, Aaliyah, Delroy Lindo, Isiah Washington, Russell Wong, DMX

Rated: AA for martial arts violence, brief tit shot, some swearing (no 'n' words!)

        Plot: Taking place in Oakland, two rival ganes, one Chinese, one African-American, are rivals in buying a football stadium on the waterfront. After the Chinese leaders son dies, the African-American leaders son dies too, and the two gangs can't trust eachother anymore. What's making things worse, is that the other son of the Chinese leader, Han Sing (Li) has a major bone for the African-American leaders daughter (Aaliyah). Can these two find love for eachother even though there is a war going on?

   My Take: Another one of the most hyped films over the last few months. Hell, I was pumped for it, I saw it the first day it came out (On a Wednesday folks) with a group of guys from school, ALL of us were pumped. Movie starts off, a DMX song blasting with the credits appearing, pretty cool, then the movie starts, and we get this KILLER opening scene. After that, there's not much left. A broken Vertebrate and a lot of Aaliyah is about it.

So what was so bad about it? I don't know, maybe it's just me, but everyone loved this flick. I just thought that the plot was really REALLY messed, and I don't care what anyone says, it was based on Romeo and Juliet. The fight sequences were good, not GREAT. They were fast, but too fast, and way too unrealistic. I mean, people are saying to me "OH LOOK AT MATRIX AND WHAT THEY DID" well if your going to compare the unrealistic fight scenes, then Matrix should have them, since it was based in a 'fantasy' world. Romeo must Die on the other hand was a REAL life atmosphere. There is no fucking way a guy can jump 6 feet in the air, kick someone over, then kick them in the head.. ALL IN THE AIR AT ONCE! What the fuck?? Unless your gravity itself, it just CAN'T happen.

    And what the hell? Jet Li is good, but anyone who needs computer animation to enhance your martial arts skills needs to take a back seat to the MAN Jackie Chan. Now wouldn't you people like to see a movie where Jet Li and Jackie Chan square off against eachother. Jet Li is way quicker, but Chan is just crazy and can take more punishment. Chan over Jet Li, easily.

        I'm too caught up in the fighting, but that's all the movie has to offer, there are a few chuckles provided along the way, but nothing to make up for the bad script and boring storyline. Between fight scenes I was dozing off at the lame script and boring actors. Jet Li can't speak a sentence over 5 words unless its Cantonese, and the only white dude in the film is a sneaky little bitch which I wanted to bitch slap for his bland acting.

        I liked Jet Li better in Lethal Weapon 4, Li can't headline a major motion picture, and should stick to supporting roles where he's only there for his ass-kicking and not acting. As for DMX.. what the fuck man? You were credited as if you were headlining this flick, but you were in 2 scenes for a total of 1 minute! You had more songs than appearances!

RATING: ** out of *****

Running Time: 1 hr 54 mins