Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)

best movie i've ever seen.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I was really prepared to hate this movie, in much the same way as I hated ROMEO MUST DIE, but I didn't. I was surprised. The two films share very similar story lines, even very similar scenes, but this is a lot more fun. Fun because the comedy isn't so forced here, it seems natural, so that even Anthony Anderson is amusing in a fair few moments. Tom Arnold is on top form and really adds to the movie with his jokes and playing to the audience. The plot is preposterous as we expect, you can't take it seriously for an instant, so the film-makers decide to have some fun with everything. There are some truly extravagant action sequences, including a race through the streets on a four-wheel quad bike with the cops and an angry biker in hot pursuit! Fantastic stuff, and tremendously exciting in places if you suspend your disbelief.There are quite a lot of non-entities in the cast, and a few bad actors here and there; it feels like an ensemble piece. Gabrielle Union supplies eye candy and nothing else with a terrible performance in a terribly-written role. DMX is a surprising improvement over his previous turns and actually convinces as a father this time around. Jet Li is fairly morose and silent, but he does manage to kick a lot of ass in invariably cool, entertaining ways. The scene in the cage in which he battles dozens of top fighters is absolutely wicked, violent and a real highlight. The over the top ending (involving a tank, a helicopter, heavy weaponry and some guy dissolving) is also a lot of fun, especially the fight scene between Li and Mark Dacascos (also on top form here). My only complaint is the way they kept cutting to other boringly predictable fights, dragging the emphasis away from the cool Li vs. Dacascos showdown.

This is an interesting short thrilling film of Jet li.Story is about a Taiwan cop and a small time thief who join hands to find extraordinary gems after which many people are, including an international criminal, who has taken the thief's daughter as hostage.The story line is fast paced, action scenes are good, Jet li's karate work is awesome, many of the stunts are well taken. Jet li and DMX are the best actors.But some of the stuff is highly exaggerated, like a helicopter bursting mid air, and a man emerging from that unscathed. also the film has few explicit scenes.Jet li fans will like it.

China and Hong Kong aren't the only countries that can make cheap martial arts flicks. That's what Cradle 2 The Grave is. It's one of those "watch just for the action" type movies.The plot is extremely unrealistic at times. First off, Tom Arnold is a black market type dealer from the streets. How the heck did he get ahold of an M1 tank and why was he trying to sell to DMX? Wouldn't people be suspicious when they saw that thing rolling down the streets doing a drive by? Then he claims that guys who robbed him had special guns even he couldn't get. If you can get a tank, you can get anything. Also, there is a big-time crime lord gangster who's in jail. Thing is, he lives like a king there. His cell looks like an apartment, he's got a cook, he's got two guards who even deliver mail to him, and he's still running his business. There's some other ones but I won't name them all.This is how the story goes: DMX is Tony Fait, a small-time yet somewhat brilliant thief who's got a few friends in a gang with him. One of them is his girlfriend. He tries to be a "good" bad guy with his no gun policy. During a heist where he is stealing black diamonds for someone else, Jet Li gets in the way. Fait ends up barely escaping with the black stones. Fait goes to Tom Arnold, an underworld dealer, and gives him the stones to analyze them. However, the stones are stolen by a big gang run by the jail gangster. Then the man who originally laid out the plans to get the stones kidnaps Faits daughter and demands the stones. Fait reluctantly teams up with Jet Li to rescue his child.Although Jet Li's name is first on the movie cover, there is no way he is the lead role. He lacks not only the speaking lines, but just on-screen time in general. The action is a step up from Romeo must die. There is not that much wire-fu in this movie. However, Jet Li doesn't really have a whole lot of fighting time in this flick. In the beginning he has two brief one-on-one encounters. Then he briefly helps DMX in a fight. The main fight is when he takes on the 20 cage fighters in the underworld fighting club. The fighting was occasionally fake and weird, but not too bad. Jet's climactic fight with Mark Dascascos was pretty good, although they cut in and out of it too many times. As for DMX, he is good at times in the fight sequences, but his martial arts is obviously fake.If you are a major Jet Li fan like me, then see this movie and admire it for what it is. It is a cheap budget, low production, chopsocky Hollywood martial arts flick.

As always, Jet Li is a great fighter. DMX can't act. This makes 2 things he sucks at. If they had no rappers, the movie would get a 7. This movie is more or less mediocre.Fore Ultimate Fighter fans, there are cameo appearances for ur people :). Jet Li is not good paired up with rappers or "gangstas". DMX sucks. Jet Li is mediocre actor but good actor. The plot is pretty much dull. The movie relies on Jet Li carrying it with his martial arts and DMX and his "gangsta G" rap.It wasn't too bad. Kinda short though. Would suggest Danny the Dog/Unleashed rather than this movie though. That one has some decent acting.