Jet Li (Once Upon A Time In China, Hero) plays Danny, a young man who is literally a human attack dog for a crook named Bart (played with malicious glee by Bob Hoskins) who operates in the seedy underbelly of Glasgow. Bart has trained Danny from a young age to, when his collar is removed, attack and kill anyone who gets in Bart's way or refuses to pay up whatever monies Bart feels are owed to him. Danny's background is a mystery, and he's a man of few words but boy can this little guy fight.

When Bart and his cronies leave Danny alone to go for a pint after a particularly vicious scuffle, by chance Danny meets a blind piano tuner named Sam (Morgan Freeman). They talk a little bit, but soon Danny is called off to take care of Bart's dirty work once again. When Bart enters Danny in an underground pit fight competition to the death, however, Bart figures they've hit the big time as Danny can earn him a whole lot of money in this new endeavor. After a car accident leaves Danny alone and Bart presumed dead, he winds up going back to Sam who takes him in as a member of his own family, despite his rather primitive social skills. Danny soon hits it off with Sam's step-daughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon), and it doesn't take him long to adopt to his new life. What none of them realize though is that Danny's past is about to come back to haunt him once more, and it isn't going to be as easy as it looks for him to break free and move on from the life he left behind.

Written by Luc Besson (of Leon and La Femme Nikita) and directed by Louis Leterrier (of The Transporter), this is a simultaneously brutal and beautiful film. Very often extremely melodramatic, Unleashed (released outside of North America as Danny The Dog) combines some intense and extremely violent action scenes and a grisly and downbeat crime story with a tale of redemption, hope, and rebirth. While in lesser hands this could fall flat on its face, Besson's tight script is, in the hands of this talented cast, handled expertly and the movie works really, really well.

In terms of visuals, however, Unleashed does tend to rely on a few too many modern action movie clichés. Shot with the aperture wide open to give the movie a very overcooked and overexposed look and with an intentionally muted color scheme, the film does achieve a certain sort of grim appearance but the slowing down and speeding up of the fight scenes are too reminiscent of the current trend of action films to really make this one feel original in the visuals department. I'm not sure how many post Matrix films have used the same cutting and slow motion/fast forward editing to attempt to accentuate the on screen violence, but in this reviewers opinion it has been far too many and the end result tends to be an exercise in style over substance.

But I digress. The fight choreography from the famous Yuen Woo Ping shows Li's martial arts abilities in a completely different light than what we're used to seeing from him. Normally Li is given roles that allow him to show off the grace and style of his wushu training but here we see a different kind of Li as he utilizes a more raw and brutal fighting technique that would look more at home with a seventies Sonny Chiba film than in something like Fong Sai-Yuk or Once Upon A Time In China where the fight choreography is more acrobatic. Here he's crushing, punching, kicking, breaking and biting – very much like a dog.

The movie wouldn't work without solid performances, however, and thankfully that's exactly what we get. Bob Hoskins is great as the sinister Bart, he's easy to hate and completely despicable. He abuses prostitutes, lies, cheats, steals and murders – he's the lowest of the low and his treatment of Danny is completely deplorable. Morgan Freeman plays the blind piano tuner with just the right amount of sweetness and sympathy for the role to work, but he still manages to show some very believable concern for Victoria when she's late coming home from school one day, a scene that stays very true to the character considering his history (which the film explains but which I will not in the interest of avoiding spoilers). While sometimes I find that Freeman is a little too much, when he's on, the man is on and he brings a sense of style and class to Unleashed that makes for a very interesting contrast to Danny's character.

The two real stars of the show, as good as Hoskins and Freeman are, however, are Jet Li and Kerry Condon. Watching their relationship blossom as both of them grow during the events that take place in the film is completely adorable without being so sugary as to ruin the film. When Victoria gives Danny his first kiss the look on the faces of both performers seals the deal and makes everything that follows between them completely buyable. Condon is interesting as a girl on the verge of becoming an adult, testing Sam's patience and limits in a few scenes as eighteen year olds are apt to do but fully realizing how good she has it with him as well. Jet Li delivers what is sincerely the best performance I've ever seen from him in terms of range and acting ability. We all know he's a whiz in a fight scene but here his emotions are all over his face. His character doesn't have a lot of dialogue, but given his background the fact that he doesn't say much makes perfect sense. This requires Li to tackle his role with a more physical approach, something that plays to his strengths. He's able to say more with his eyes, with can convey complete sadness and the utmost joy, than a lot of actors are able to through pages of dialogue and he really does, at times, resemble a sad dog. Condon and Li have such a wonderful chemistry on screen together that at times you forget you're watching a hard boiled action film and as melodramatic and cheesy as it may sound, it's easy to get lost in their subplot.

NOTE: There are two versions of the film on this DVD: the unrated version, and the extended version. The scenes that are in the extended version that are not in the unrated version are not available to view on their own and are only accessible by choosing the extended version of the film. Through some branching, when an extended scene plays, you'll notice a yellow indicator on your television screen (you may also notice a brief pause as your player digs for that information it needs). There is also a slight decrease in the quality of the video in the extended scenes. If you chose the extended verion you'll be treated to longer versions of a couple of scenes, including some of the action scenes, but nothing that really alters the tone of the film much at all.

The DVD

Video:

Unleashed comes to DVD in a solid 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Those who have seen the film before know that it was shot using a very muted looking color scheme that is intentionally washed out of all but the faintest hints of the brighter hues. This, along with some grit and grain added to the image, is supposed to give the movie a dirty, rough feeling that suits the storyline. While I didn't personally care for the look of the film, I won't fault this DVD's transfer for reproducing it accurately for home viewing. The black levels stay strong and pretty deep, there's a good level of fine detail present in the movie and while a lot of the movie looks quite soft in spots, it does retain the look that the filmmakers were going for. Edge enhancement and line shimmering are present in a few scenes, you'll notice along car grills and along the sides of buildings, but it's never overpowering and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression. Print damage is never an issue and intentionally altered visuals put aside for the sake of objectivity, this is a fine transfer.