Unleashed (Danny the Dog)

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Unleashed (Danny the Dog)

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Unleashed (Danny the Dog)

Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry Condon, Vincent Regan

This is the story of Danny (Li), a slave who has lived his whole life without any sort of normal human education, with the mind and personality of a young child, with only one lesson learned: how to f...( read more  read more... )ight. Treated like a dog by his owner/boss, Bart (Hoskins) which includes having to wear a collar, Danny has been raised to be a lethal fighting machine who fights in illegal gladiator-style fight clubs, where he earns lots of money for Bart as the undisputed champion. After a car accident that lands Bart in a coma, however, Danny meets a kind elderly blind piano tuner (Freeman) on the run because he knows secrets some bad guys don't want known, who uses music to teach Danny some things about the world and about being human. French title: "Danny the Dog."

Id: 1703539

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Unleashed (Danny the Dog) Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 22, 2009
    SirPant
    This is an odd film. I liked it, and you could tell it was a Besson production I just think it could have been better, it was a little slow in places and not terribly convincing.
  • mrpopcorn
    February 14, 2009
    mrpopcorn
    "Serve No Master"

    A man raised into behaving like a dog, escapes from his captor to start a new life, who seeks to reclaim him because of his unnatural martial arts skills that are triggered when unleashed.

    REVIEW
    This has everything you want from a fi...( read more)lm, and even more if your a Jet Li fan. It has balance of different genres which create a near perfect film in my opinion.

    Firstly, the fight scenes are superb, bone crunching jaw dropping martial arts from Jet Li, who plays the main role of Danny. Though some may judge this film to be a violent action film, they couldn't be more wrong. Despite its certificate rating and cast, this film is mainly a drama, and a very good one. Like in Jet Li's Fearless, we see Li's acting come into play here, acting out the role of the poor, corrupted Danny superbly. Morgan Freeman is the icing on the cake, as always, he acts out his character superbly.

    So what do we have here? A violent, powerful drama, with hints of comedy throughout. Even if you don't like Jet Li, watch this film, its deep storyline will definitely move you if the amazing choreography doesn't.
  • irisheyes686
    November 29, 2008
    irisheyes686
    This movie was really sad, but it was good nonethless.
  • EarthlyAlien
    October 19, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Infirmier: "So you essentially turned a man into a dog.
    Bart: Like my saint of a mum used to say: Get 'em young enough and the possibilities are endless.
    Infirmier: Let me see if I've got this straight. Now I don't pay you, you take his collar off.
    Bart: C...( read more)orrectimundo.
    Infirmier: You take his collar off, he beats us all to death.
    Bart: Now who's the bright penny!
    Infirmier: So it seems it's in my best interest to keep that collar on, then."

    Photobucket

    Think of the 'international' Jet Li and you would normally think of action substanceless packed films with tons of fights and... well, more fights. There are storylines involved, but they normally fit around the action sequences in which we get to laugh nervously as he kicks ass in a flurry of punches, kicks and swipes, and then think "wow, he can actually do that". It has been that way for the last decade, since someone decided to ask him to play the bad guy in Lethal Weapon 4. People tend to forget that this man started making films a quarter of a decade ago, before some of us were even born.

    What makes Danny the Dog (Unleashed in its lame alternative title) different is the fact that the action sequences revolve around a storyline, which means that, although there are less fights, the film doesn't actually need them so much to carry the story. Set in Glasgow (although most people have cockney/English accents) Danny (Jet Li) is a slave, trained, treated and fed like a dog by his master, Bart (Bob Hoskins), a small-time crime boss who exploits Danny's exceptional fighting skills to pulverise anyone who doesn't pay up on time. Having 'found' orphaned Danny at an early age, Bart keeps him docile by a metal collar. When the collar is removed Danny becomes a killing machine, unlike the harmless creature that he is when the collar's on. He's kept in an underground cage. He eats food with his fingers straight from the can. He still reads children's books, having never had the chance to further his development since he was ten years old. A prisoner. A caged animal.

    When an attempt on Bart's life leaves Danny with a chance of escape, he is taken in by blind piano tuner Sam (Morgan Freeman) and his stepdaughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon, who played Octavia of the Julii in BBC's "Rome"). Slowly acclimatising to a radically contrasting lifestyle under these new, normal conditions, Danny enrols on a crash course of life, learning about humanity - something he had never known while under the control of his cruel 'uncle'. He's a quick learner, too. He learns how to cook, develops a love for music and ice cream, uncovers the tragic truth about his mother, and how he came to be Bart's killer dog. Soon however, his previous life of violence catches up with him, forcing him to put on the collar again.

    It's a real treat to see a film that is only, arguably, a 'kung' film. Or a 'fu' film. It hasn't quite enough fighting to make it a conventional martial arts feature - there's something else here, too. It's Danny's story - the story of his troubled life, from being a caged animal to growing as a docile man finding a new life, dreaming of being a pianist. Danny's story does tend to veer toward the overly sentimental but ultimately this interesting experiment, featuring some truly memorable characters, comes off successfully thanks to a stellar cast, tight direction and a brilliant musical score courtesy of Massive Attack.

    Written and produced by Luc Besson, and directed by one his apprentices, Louis Leterrier (Transporter 2), Danny the Dog is the second collaboration between Besson and Jet Li - after the not-so-bad Kiss of the Dragon. Li gives his best English-speaking performance here. He is exact and flawless and it's so good to see real acting talent from him, even as a non-Chinese character. His balance of killing machine and cautious figure of child-like vulnerability is surprisingly spot-on, but it's important to remember that his approach to acting in this context is, wisely, 'less is more' when he's not clobbering bad guys, he's playing a dog and hence adopts a blank, expressionless look for the most part. Li worked hard developing this role into what we see in the final product and it shows, having even changed his fighting style to behave like a savage dog - attacking the thugs one-by-one with relentless ferocity.

    The ever-reliable Morgan Freeman is good as ever, and allegedly changed his character during pre-production, making Sam blind and therefore able to see the child in Danny. As you can imagine, it's the sort of role Freeman was born to play, and he delivers the goods in his usual, magnetic manner, despite the cheese factor you may smell. Bob Hoskins is the epitome of pint-sized, thuggish British menace here, grimacing his way through proceedings like an older, meaner version of Harry Shand in The Long Good Friday. For a 62-year-old man, Hoskins really pulls out the stops and doesn't seem to mind getting in the thick of the action. Respect.

    From a directorial perspective, Leterrier has constructed a slick, polished and unique piece with Danny the Dog. The choice of Glasgow for a setting is part of this uniqueness and really helps to establish the seedy, bleak criminal underworld inhabited by a rather nasty bunch of characters whom you eagerly await to see being pummelled repeatedly, beyond recognition by Danny the Dog. The film is naturally not without its flaws - the biggest one being the fact that, for a film set in Glasgow, there were no Scottish people to be found - but it still makes for an extremely entertaining and stylish action flick, with a nice British flavour to keep things a tad less predictable.

    Danny the Dog can also be affecting and moving, but only if you allow yourself to get sucked in by all that corny sentimentality. It's also strikingly brutal when it eventually steps back in the ring, making it open to interpretation as to whether it's either like a badly paced fight film or a really violent drama. It's hard to figure out which, but that's not important. In fact, it adds to its charm. With Luc Besson as the scribe, this slower-paced middle section is no accidental break in the action. It's more of an intentional enterprise to do something different with established theatrical formulae and get a message (of anti-slavery) across, while the beginning and climax feature enough seriously kick-ass martial arts to blow your mind, demonstrating how Jet Li just gets better and better. See for yourself. Have some tissues ready if you're the emotional sort. Either way, it's totally worth it.

    Wyeth: "That thing with the collar... how did you do that?
    Bart: Like my saint of a mum used to say, "Get 'em young, and the possibilities are endless."
    Wyeth: I thought it was the Jesuits who said that.
    Bart: Probably got it from my mum."
  • DrZeek
    October 19, 2008
    DrZeek
    Wyeth: That thing with the collar... how did you do that?
    Bart: Like my saint of a mum used to say, "Get 'em young, and the possibilities are endless."
    Wyeth: I thought it was the Jesuits who said that.
    Bart: Probably got it from my mum.

    Along with Jet Li, this film has a story...( read more) by producer Luc Besson, a strange but strong supporting cast, music by RZA, and some cool aciton. Its not great, but it certainly provides good entertainment.

    Jet Li stars as Danny, a young man who has essentially lived as a slave most of his life to his master, a bull dog-like gangster played by Bob Hoskins. Danny has been trained to attack people when a collar is taken off his neck.

    After a realization of what he does and a timely incident, Danny runs away only to land in the home of a blind piano tuner, played by Morgan Freeman, and a young girl who lives with him.

    Danny: I don't want to hurt people anymore.

    What follows is Danny's attempts to live a normal life and be released from his past with the collar. Of course bad things will eventually happen in an attempt to bring Danny back to the world he left.

    The most noticeable thing about this movie is the forty minutes in between action scenes devoted to Danny's initial time with his new friends. Here we get to see Li attempt to elevate himself above pure action star in favor of his attempts to place more acting in a role. This more or less works, but by the time the action kicks back in, it is interesting to see the change in style he uses from vicious dog at the beginning to more restrained and non-lethal.

    So the film does drag in the middle, but it is enjoyable enough.

    Danny: This one's ripe!
  • eryri
    December 18, 2009
    eryri
    What a great film showcasing the amazing talent of Jet Li. The fight sequences are breathtaking to watch.
  • BlackSouls666
    December 8, 2009
    BlackSouls666
    This action movie has some good qualitys but it's not one of the best I have seen.
  • bigdaddydaryl
    November 26, 2009
    bigdaddydaryl
    This was lacking in the fighting department thats for sure.I found this to be more of a story about a boy finding out who and what he is.not what you expect from Jet Li.kinda slow and boring at times.
  • metabolico66
    November 17, 2009
    metabolico66
    esta super chida esta pelicula se las recumiendo!!
  • tiffanychung
    October 27, 2009
    tiffanychung
    so goooood. the way freeman hit that guy in the end was too funny.
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