After much thought I still don't understand the name of this movie, Cradle 2 the Grave, and its relationship to the film just does not make any sense. Did the powers that be just think it was a cool name and the relevancy was irrelevant? Although, it was a kick ass movie and I do enjoy my action flicks. Cradle 2 the Grave stars Jet Li (The One) as Su, a Taiwanese agent trying to recover the black diamonds taken in an elaborate heist and DMX (Exit Wounds) as Tony Fait, the mastermind behind the heist. This pairing is very complementary since DMX has charisma and talent while Li is emotionless, but delivers his martial arts with effortless precision. The action in this film is outrageous and it begins with Fait and his sidekick running through an underground light rail system to break into a building with a vault containing safe deposit boxes full of diamonds. Meeting them is Daria (Gabrielle Union, Deliver us From Eva) and Tommy (Anthony Anderson, Kangaroo Jack) as they tag team to finesse a security guard. Meanwhile, Su is dazzling us with his ability to jump balcony to balcony from the penthouse down until he reaches the intended floor. Everyone is after these black diamonds now and we need a score card to figure out who is who and if there a good side. Well Su is with the Taiwan government, but the rest of the players are out for themselves. Fait's gang pulled this heist off for someone else who now is dead, his killer is Ling (Mark Dacascos, Instinct to Kill), who used to work with Su, but is out for himself now and is willing to kill everyone. Fait left the diamonds with arms dealer Archie, (Tom Arnold, True Lies) a white guy hamming it up for the black man in an interesting twist of comic relief. Well, he handed over the diamonds to the local mobster when threatened after the incarcerated King Pin sent his army. Ling goes after the mobster. In the meantime Fait and Su take on Dobermans, mobsters and Ling's guys, there is a chase scene on an ATV ending up on a rooftop jumping from one building to the next, explosions, Li in a boxing ring with about 20 guys, high body counts and even a helicopter crash. My kind of film. The cinematography is gritty and urban. By the way, they are not really diamonds, which is why they are so coveted. Now the question is why would Su and Fait team up when they are on opposing sides? Well Ling snatched Fait’s kid Vanessa (Paige Hurd) so they have to work together to get the kid back and recover the diamonds.

This movie meets all my expectations of an action film, including an even better death scene from Li than he delivered in Kiss of the Dragon and up until now that was one of the best deaths I have seen. Also appearing in this Andrezej Bartkowiak directed film were, Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King) Drag-On, Erik Betts, Aaron Brumfield, Sean Cory, Michael Desante, Nikki Martin, Mark Hicks and many more. Cradle 2 the Grave offers an interesting switch of comic relief in Tom Arnold’s character and DMX as the bad guy too good to not root for. Also note there isn't some ridiculous love scene tossed in the mix at the most inopportune time to distract us. Even though there are no gratuitous booty shots, I enjoyed this ride. I give Cradle 2 the Grave nine couches.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:29 AM

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