Masque noir

Anyone who had never seen anything like the fight scenes in The Matrix has never seen this movie. The fight scenes were choreographed by action scene psychopath Yuen Woo Ping, who also did the fights in The Matrix. And the fight scenes are somethin.

Li plays a supersoldier who feels no pain, who now lives a life as a pacifist librarian (ya got me). When other evil supersoldiers begin killing off local drug lords to take over the drug trade, Li teams up with his cop buddy to help stop them.

There are some absolutely crazy things going on in this movie (one badguy gets his arm lopped off with a pane of glass and hardly notices). The fights scenes are filled with flying kicks and punches; the body count is way up there. Li has seldom been better, and he has surrounded himself with a bevy of beautiful female costars (Yip kicks some serious ass as a fellow supersoldier). Anthony Wong even makes a cameo as a drug lord (no suprises there; he makes a cameo in every HK movie). It's unfortunate they don't make action movies like this in the US; I wouldn't have to sit through all of these horrible dubbing jobs to see that action that I crave so much. Recommended.

I really enjoyed this movie and it was a little difficult do that when your brother is making stupid comments in it ever 30 seconds. But this movie I enjoyed, mostly because I'm used to the usual HK action films. Most of the films like this are don't watch it for the story line, watch it for the mindless action. And mindless action is right. You get to see Jet Li Jump, spin, kick, punch, shoot, make impossible jumps and dodge countless bullets. It's true that this movie was released to a broader audience after Li was in Lethal Weapon 4. That is one of the reasons the ratings on this movie dropped. Most people were probably expecting to see a movie that was as polished as a North American film. But you need to remember most HK film budgets aren't nearly as high as a North American film, and the style in a HK action film is usually very different usually requiring in wire work in a lot of them. If you want to see a good action film you should see this just try to ignore the dubbing.

My rating was an 8.

In Stand By Me, Vern and Teddy discuss who was tougher, Superman or Mighty Mouse. My friends and I often discuss who would win a fight too. Sometimes we get absurd and compare guys like MacGyver and The Terminator or Rambo and Matrix. But now it seems that we discuss guys like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li. It is a pointless comparison seeing that Lee is dead, but it is a fun one. And if you go by what we have seen from Jet Li in Lethal 4 and Black Mask, you have to at least say that he would match up well against Chan. In this film he comes across as a martial arts God.

Black Mask is about a man that was created along with many other men, to be supreme fighting machines. Their only purpose is to win wars that other people lose. They are invincible in some ways. Now that is the premise for the film, but what that does is sets up all the amazingly choreographed fight scenes.

Jet Li is a marvel. He can do things with and to his body that no human being should be able to do. And that is what makes watching him so fun.

Besides the martial arts in the film, Black Mask is strong with humour and that is due to the chemistry that Jet has with his co-star, the police officer. They are great together. But to be honest. if anyone is reading this review, they want to know if the film is kick ass in the action department. And the answer to that is a resounding YES!!! Lots and lots of gory mindless action. You will love this film.

This is probably the movie that made Jet Li well known in the States. The mask obviously reminds you of "Kato" in Green Hornet, and that homage alone was enough to secure this as one of the classics of Hong Kong martial arts movies.

A genetic experiment to create super soldiers is deemed a failure. All are ordered to be destroyed. One of them survives, and finds a peaceful life as a librarian until the old acquaintances shows up to finish their job.

The production of this movie is not its good part. It reminds you of the dingy atmosphere of '70s Hong Kong movies. But the idea is brilliant, and casting little known Jet Li at the time for the lead was a spectacular success. He really is believable as genetically enhanced super soldier. Very young Karen Mok plays an unwitting hostage to Li, and adds sideline to the story.

This genetically enhanced soldier scheme continued with other movies such as Huk Mau (Black Cat), which is in the same vain as this movie, with also "Black" as part of its title.

With fantastic moves like this, who wouldn't be a star ! Jet Li became the premier super star from this point on, which still is on going.

Having not been particularly knowledgeable when it comes to this particular genre, this film came as a complete surprise to me. Not in a particularly good way either. Coming off like some insane take on UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, BLACK MASK sees a librarian don the mask of the title - which incidentally looks like a piece of corrugated cardboard - and fight off a large number of enemies. Extremely cartoonish, this plays like a comic strip which is useful as it's impossible to take anything that happens seriously.

The moment Jet Li's character opens his mouth, it all goes downhill. For here we have an incredibly awful piece of dubbing work which just about ruins any credibility the movie may have had. And as the film shifts haphazardly from scene to scene, barely bothering with cohesion and sometimes cutting scenes off when they are only halfway through, you think all hope is lost. Then come along some bizarre fight scenes which almost make the whole enterprise worthwhile.

Forget Hollywood action - this is something different. Jet Li (a hissable villain in LETHAL WEAPON 4) convinces as a superhuman mainly due to his ability to do lightning moves and stunts that, for a normal person, would be impossible. People jump all over the place, kick each other, shoot and explode things in rapid succession. A love interest appears only for her to be in mortal danger from the baddies (yawn). The final battle is a real show-stopper. It's just a shame about what happens when the fighting stops. I don't quite know what I watched, but I'm not in any hurry to see it again.