Jet Li's "The One" Review (1 Viewer)

[Sean Moon]

Just spun about half this disc tonight, couldnt finish watching as the Jay and Silent Bob viewing crowd arrived early(that's a great disc BTW)

But The One...awesome disc. Great, beautiful picture and a very active and aggressive surround mix, and I only got to watch the first half hour. Will update later after watching the whole film, but so far this disc is highly recommended!

 

[luke cav]

Managed to watch all of the film monday night. Having not seen it at the cinema, was interested to watch it. Since the film is released in april in the UK. Picture and sound were very good. Have not managed to watch all of the extras yet.

 

[Feng]

I watched "The One" in movie theater and I think it's horrible. I am really disppointed in Jet Li's Hollywood movies ("Romeo must die", "Kiss of the Dragon"). If you want a good Jet Li's flick, watch "Fist of Legend".

 

[Matthew Brown]

The only problem with FIST OF LEGEND is that you won't find a really good version on DVD. The Dimension release is cut, dubbed, and rescored. The RItek release is missing the original Cantonese soundtrack although there is a Mandarin one.
Demension's release changed the story slightly and removed the racial tension between the Chinese and Japanese characters. Disney also played with some of the characters so that they appear to have different motivations than they did in the original movie.
There is a release from France that doesn't have English subtitles. If you have a multi-region player capable of playing PAL, region 2 DVD's, I would reccamend this one if you speak Cantonese or French.
Here's a link to reviews of the DImension and Ritek DVD's.
http://www.loveandbullets.com/fol.htm
Matt

 

[Feng]

I didn't really pay attention to "Fist of Legend" DVD because I bought the VCD version back in China before I came to USA. If it's dubbed and re-editted then that really sucks.

But Madarin track should be OK. You should know that Jet Li is from mainland. He doesn't speak Cantonese. He speaks Madarin. The Cantonese track actually has his voice dubbed. So it's not really "original" track.

I am from mainland too. I do NOT understand Cantonese at all.

 

[Bill Zerby]

I AM YULAW, AND I AM NOBODY'S BITCH!!

at that point i was like "whatever, this is getting ridiculous"

 

[Benson R]

I am surprised I don't hear more people awaiting this release. I was shocked to see it is coming out tuesday. I had to search for this thread so I thought the release was coming out in another couple weeks. I think people may have unfairly labeled this a boxoffice flop and that explains its low key release. When it was released back in November Harry Potter and Monsters Inc came out soon after. After Harry Potter I don't think any of the megaplexes around here had it on even one screen. I know it was not going to be a big hit but I had wanted to see it a second time in late November with other people who had wanted to but hadn't seen it yet and we could not find it playing anywhere. Anyway despite some people complaining about it coming short of other jet li movies I think many here will be quite surprised by its imaginate use of special effects and Jet Li climatic fight scene with himself.

 

[Paul Richardson]

I thought the film started off quite strongly, but spiraled downward very quickly. Even if you discount the ludicrous story, the lazy production design, the horrific dialogue, and the bad acting...you are left with mediocre fighting sequences that are few and far between and concentrate too much on flashy effects that undermine Jet Li's abilities. This film doesn't come close to Jet Li's Hong Kong work ...even his lesser HK efforts like BLACK MASK are better than THE ONE.

Not recommended.

 

[Benson R]

I admit that Jet Li is more impressive when he is not dependent on special effects but I think it was nice to see him do something a little bit different. Although I can't argue that this was the world greatest script I don't think the acting was that bad. I rather liked much of the supporting cast especially Delroy Lindo and that guy from the Guy Ritchie film's whose name currently escapes me. As far as the ludicrous story well I don't think it was that bad and did manage to pose some interesting ideas about the concepts of dimensional travel albeit with serious holes in the theory. I don't think the story has to be much for the movie to be enjoyable. In many of his reviews for martial arts films Roger Ebert has said that the story in these movies is just a way to string this elaborately planned fights together and that is not necessarily a bad thing. And I think the sequence with evil Jet Li picking up the two motorcycles is alone worth the admission price.

 

[Benson R]

I forgot one thing I wanted to ask of those that did not enjoy this movie. What was your opinion of the other Jet Li movie from last year Kiss of the Dragon. Romeo Must Die seemed to have been panned across the board by his fanbase. Kotd seemed to have been a more traditional martial arts movie yet it also did not seem to be accepted by his fans. I have a limited knowledge of his Hong Kong films, basically what Dimension has released on DVD. I know kotd was not as good as some of his best work but I still found it impressive and was eager to add it to my collection. So my question I guess is what was missing from this film that caused it to pale in comparison to his other works.

 

[Matthew Brown]

KISS OF THE DRAGON, while a step up from ROMEO MUST DIE, still lacked something that Jet Li's Hong Kong movies have. Jet Li's Hong Kong movies show the action scenes in longer cuts and are filmed wider. We get to see him execute a move completely before an edit takes place. KOTD has very fast editing during the fight scenes. I didn't like THE ONE because there was no reason to have Jet Li in it if they were going to enhance his fights with CGI.
Jet Li doesn't use a stunt double so often as to require all the editing that was done in KOTD.
KOTD reminded me of the action movies from the early 80's. Not great, but a solid action movie.
For a good movie that showcases a very young Jet Li, I suggest Shao Lin Temple. he must be 18 in this one. All the actors are incredibly talented when it comes to martial arts in this movie. It's a little more "old school" Kung Fu than Jet's other movies.
Here's a link to my Jet Li DVD reviews. I have a Korean version of Black Mask on the way that is supposed to be the best version out there.
http://www.loveandbullets.com/jetli.htm
Matt

 

[John Chow]

I'll give props to Shaolin Temple as well. There are a ton of martial art masters in that movie something on the order of >6 or so, I forget the exact number. There is also quite a bit of weapon work, which isn't as common nowadays. From what I understand it was Jet Li's very first film, although I could very well be mistaken.

Man, I wish someone would come out with ultimate, unbastardized, and unedited versions of Drunken Master 2 and Fist of Legend. Those are easily my two favorite martial arts movies that I refuse to buy on dvd until good versions exist.