Movie 4.5Been a while since I'd seen this movie. I used to own in on DVD and saw it something like 3 times before selling it to make room for the transition to Blu-ray. It took a while, but it's good to finally see this title on BD. And after so many years, I have to say I actually like it a lot more now than I did initially. Danny the Dog (aka Unleashed in the U.S.) is the story of Danny (Jet Li), a poor soul raised from childhood as a human attack dog that does the dirty work of small-time Glasgow kingpin, Bart (Bob Hoskins). Danny is literally treated like a dog given a collar to wear 24/7, is fed food from a can, and lives a pretty desolate life as nothing more than a mere animal. But one day, Danny befriends a blind piano tuner named Sam (Morgan Freeman) who, through a stint of piano tuning, manages to elicit some of Danny's human side, if but for a few minutes. Then, when an accident injures Danny and sets him free from the grips of his cruel master, he seeks out Sam, who accepts him with open arms and offers to care for him with the help of his stepdaughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon). And in their time together, the two manage to re-humanize Danny and salvage his broken spirit from the dark depths of violence and emotional turmoil. This couldn't have been a more perfect role for Li. As apparent by his other Hollywood films, while he does show some actual acting prowess (though more so in his Chinese work) from time to time, the language barrier has always been his weak point. And what better a way to utilize his not-so-good English than with a character that's more about movement (which Li is a master technician of from all that wushu) and less about dialogue? Throw in the opposing fatherly-forces in Hoskins and Freeman (who play outstanding contrasts to one another) and some cutesy lighthearted bonding moments with Condon, and you've got a fairly gripping story. Needless to say, it's also a Jet Li movie choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, and the action is absolutely brutal when you get down to it. But what surprises me the most is how the entire film manages to be not just an entertaining romp, but also a touching tale and character drama. This is easily Louis Leterrier's best film to date with a little help from his mentor, Luc Besson, in the writing department, and soon-to-be director, but current DP, Pierre Morel. In fact, speaking of Besson, I'd even go so far as to say Danny the Dog was this decade's Leon, albeit a tad less developed, but excellently portrayed, nonetheless.
Video 4.5
It's been too long for me to remember what this looked like on DVD, but thankfully the extras are in SD, which is enough to remind me of the difference in quality. That being said, Pierre Morel's photography looks excellent. With Leterrier wanting to achieve a film noir-look, colors aren't particularly vibrant. In fact, just about any scene outside of Danny's bonding moments with Sam or Victoria are very cold, drab, and opaque. There are lots of blues, whites, grays, and charcoals used in a majority of the gangster life sequences when we see Danny living as a dog. From his dirty clothes to the grimy streets of Glasgow, the production design gives off a depressing quality befitting of the life Danny has lead to that point. Contrast is also slightly more desaturated in these scenes, though black levels are maintained very well throughout. During the happier times in Sam's apartment or in the various other non-criminal locales, hues are much fuller and create a sense of warmth to counteract the coldness of the former. Contrast and saturation feel more natural making flesh tones appear very lifelike and just a lot more pleasant to the eye. Image detail is actually a lot sharper than I remember and especially in comparison to some of the SD shots from the extras giving the visual presentation a nice sense of depth and HD pop. For instance, you can see all the little indentations of the food at the supermarket, the lining of Victoria's braces, or the fuzzy textures on Danny's teddy bear. The film also possesses a fine layer of film grain to keep the picture feeling gritty, and there appear to be no signs of DNR. There are some instances of Edge Enhancement and some scenes of the movie are a bit nosier than others (like the really, really dark scenes), and there are occasions of dirt and debris popping up here and there, but overall I'm very satisfied with the quality of the picture, especially in comparison to those SD shots from the DVD port. I think all the various color schemes, filters, and whatever other methods they used to portray the different outlooks of Danny's life are a great way of compliment and contrast for another.
Audio 5.0
In addition to an excellent video transfer, Universal also outputs a booming and reference-level audio experience. The DTS-HD track has quite a bit of rumble to it. LFEs are the most prominent feature making their mark through the pounding bass of the music and various low end sound effects (like dramatic whirring and such). Dialogue is crisp and clear from the center with no distortion or dropout problems, while a majority of the sound effects are not quite front-heavy per say, but slightly more towards the front as a result of the sound design. It's not until guns start blazing that the rears get their fair share of noise distribution, which for all intents and purposes sound awesome because there really aren't that many sequences of it till around the end of the movie. But being most notably a martial arts-centric film, a majority of the effects come from the frequent punching, kicking, whacking, and body thuds. Again, much like the gunplay, there's not an incredible amount of the stuff, but when the violence starts, you can really hear and feel it. I was very happy to feel the thumps and wuds emanating from the sub-woofer and wouldn't expect anything less from this genre. The music by Neil Davidge and Massive Attack give the film a great balance of upbeat ambience for the action and slow, mellow piano/orchestral pieces for character development. Again, directionality and separation don't do a whole lot and are more sporadic in the first and second acts of the film, but immersion is excellent when the fighting ensues. Obviously, the best parts you could use for reference are Danny's fight in the arena and his battle against that bald-headed, wannabe Shaolin monk white guy (never liked his look, but he did a pretty good job keeping up with Li). The arena fight has a lot of sound immersion from the crowd and music with some great body hits and weapon clash effects. And the white guy battle is reference brutality, when they start fighting in the toilet room and literally beat the crap out of each other I can't help but find that scene violently beautiful. The clarity of the smacking of fist on head, fist to body, then foot to head are quite rousing.
Extras 2.0
While everything else about this disc is great, the extras are very underwhelming and a bit of a disappointment. First, there's a 5-minute clip of Leterrier talking about the film where he basically gives the premise, tells a little bit about the kind of picture he wanted to make, all the star power involved, and how great it was to work with all of them. It's very short and not a bad watch, but an audio commentary would've been nicer. Then there's the feature "Serve No Master," which basically shows the fight choreography for the scene in the arena with some snippets of commentary from Li rounding out to about 10 minutes. Most of it is the fight itself taken straight from the movie with a little bit of P-i-P comparisons from the filming. This one is pretty skipable. Next, there's "The Collar Comes Off," which is a little bit more in-depth about the overall filming and writing. It recycles most, if not all of the commentary and interviews from Serve No Master, though does have some input from Freeman, and a little more from Hoskins. This feature is about 12 minutes long, but again is severely lacking in depth. And lastly, there are a couple of music videos featuring the music of Massive Attack and The RZA. Altogether these videos are about 4 minutes total and are nothing more than highlight reels of the fight scenes. The extras aren't shabby, but they're not that interesting either. Oh well, better than nothing.
Overall 4.0
Danny the Dog is probably my favorite non-Chinese Jet Li film to date (although I'm not really sure which side I'd put The Forbidden Kingdom on, it's Hollywood-made, but for the most part was made in China..). It's a riveting story about an unfortunate person who came to live a sad life, but was saved from it with a little bit of kindness and lotta' bit of martial arts to take his pursuers out. Ever since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon set a new standard for me in terms of wushu/wuxia movies with a story, I've found some pretty good gems since then in Hero, Danny the Dog, Huo Yuan Jia (aka Fearless), and maybe even Chi Bi (aka Red Cliff) if I ever get around to watching part II. But I definitely can say is this another one of the greats. With excellent video and reference audio (though a disappointing amount of extras), Danny the Dog (or Unleashed, or whatever you're used to calling it) comes highly recommended.
You can't go wrong with Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman, either. It was clearly good vs. evil, but those two guys can give nuance and depth to even the most basic of plot points.
The Blu-ray version is clean and crisp. No pixelation even with the intense action and darker surroundings of the fighing pit and Freeman's apartment. Nice extra's as you get a chance to hear Jet Li's take on the character and why he wanted the role so much. Don't hesitate to buy it and while you're at it, grab Kiss of the Dragon, too!I'll admit that upon first look this film seemed like just another run-of-the-mill revenge action flick with mediocre writing and substandard acting, yet I was very pleasantly surprised by how deep and emotionally involving this film actually was! While Jet-Li has never been known for his acting talent, he shines here as young man is taken under bondage by his sleezy and greedy uncle who uses him as a sort of pitbull fighting dog, who makes his uncle vasts amount of money in underground street fights by keeping him sort of captive through the use of a electronic metal collar. How this collar works exactly is never really explained, but given how engrossing the film is, it doesn't really need to be. Danny also deals with a struggle with how his mother died and what exactly happened to her.
Jet-Li's character Danny soon becomes separated by his uncle and gang and gets taken in by a blind piano repair man played by Morgan Freeman (who surprised me that he actually decided to be in this film), and his stepdaughter Victoria (played by unknown actress Kerry Condon who puts on an absolutely charming and adorable performance as a young and extroverted high school senior you know, the sort of young woman every man dreams of finding and marrying... really, she's that good). All in all, Condon and Freeman steal the show, as without these two actors playing middle-class citizens in London just trying to get by this film would most likely just be another substandard washout. Jet-Li also puts on a surprisingly good performance as we see his character develop from a somewhat very shy and introverted mute to an more open and joyful young man who is reborn into a new life.
Things soon get dicey when it is discovered that Danny's uncle is not actually dead as originally thought, and Danny's two worlds collide.
While the film is only 95 minutes long, and doesn't really do anything that other films have already experimented with, it is the performances that keep you involved. Yes, there are some great action scenes and good fighting choreography in this, but what is relieving is that the fighting is not what is meant to keep your attention during this movie, but instead it is the characters and their relationships, their growth and emotional involvement. You come to care about the characters and what happens to them, you begin to feel bad and worried for Danny as well as his new family. This is just good writing.
Now, sure this movie could have been better if the script was more tweaked and more time was put into the few plot holes that exist or things that aren't readily explained, the villains also could have been more "hate-able," and there could have been room for more sideplots involving the new family... but really, as you watch the film, you just accept it for what it is and do come to like it. So in another sense, this film can't immediately be dubbed an "action film." While there is action in it (fairly violent at many points) there is good dialogue and drama, so this could be placed in the borderline action/drama category. The Unrated version is only 1 minute longer than the theatrical version (both version exist on the disc), and I'm sure plenty of brief violent scenes are restored, although I have only seen the Unrated version.
As for the Blu-ray transfer, I must honestly say that it's pretty good, but not great. There is some grain that is left over so while the picture is good, it is no Lord of the Rings Blu-ray quality, but it is quite a few hairs better than what a DVD would be. The sound excels over the video as the audio comes out even across the entire film, and things sound plenty rich and crisp and crystal clear. I would say in some ways the audio in this film exceed many of the more mainstream Blu-ray hits. So definite Kudos for the studio on that one. As far as extras, don't expect anything, you don't get any behind the scenes or anything like that, but considering the price, you won't miss it.
So for action fans this is a good pick up and flick to watch over the some dinner or with some friends. I definitely recommend it, even for those non-action fans.
Read Best Reviews of Unleashed (2005) Here
This movie depicts how a human might react if they were treated like a dog. Put into a cage, taught to fight on command, ignore pain and damage until the other individual(s) is down or dead. Yet redemption is still available as a memory of his childhood clings to him in the form of a piano tune. It is through this manner that a "chained dog" becomes surface civilizied where he overcomes his incredibtly brutal upbringing to rise above and claim his humaity before the curtain ends. A bit of a leap in the transformation, but it is supposed to be a redemption movei and you can't have your hero staying "chained" to his past unable to break free. Good movie, lots of violence, some over the top; but when compared to some of what's in theaters today, it can seem almost tame.Not for children as this is adult theme movie, not PG-13 by any means, would be hesitant to allow pre-teens to watch.
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