Movie Review: “Exit Wounds”

Release Date: March 16, 2001

Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures/NPV Entertainment/Silver Pictures

Review on “Romeo Must Die”

Here I am in Part II of my series of reviews related to what I like to think of as “The Hip-Hop Martial Arts Trilogy of the early-2000s.” While I am aware that there are other action movies from this era that had rappers in them (one of which I will mention later), I always have associated the likes of “Romeo Must Die,” “Exit Wounds,” and “Cradle 2 the Grave” together because of a number of reasons, ranging from the hip-hop and martial arts theme to the same director to the recurring actors in these films. On top of that, they were all done by the same production companies. Oh, and while this isn’t really that important, but they were all released during the same time-frames in their respective years of release.

Coincidence? I think not!

So with all this being said, I can say that when I was about 14, I saw a TV spot for this and for some reason, I had immediately thought of “Romeo Must Die.” Similar styles, DMX (RIP) returned, except this time he is one of the lead actors and had a prominent role in this film. Oh, and Steven Seagal was also in this film as he is the central lead in this.

I know over the years, Steven Seagal has become something of a joke, and with good reason. This guy has a negative reputation for a lot of things, whether he is hard to work with, has had bad marriages (among other things related to women). Hell, he refuses to lose in a fight scene in any of his movies. I know people also make fun of his weight but if you stop and think about it, that’s only a small percentage of why he is a joke.

I say this as someone who has genuinely enjoyed some of his films, whether it’s “Above the Law,” “Out for Justice,” “Marked for Death,” both “Under Siege” films, etc. However, when watching a movie of his, all of his fights are one-sided, and let’s not forget how he always sounds like he is whispering when he talks.

I am getting a little ahead of myself. Maybe I should just talk about the film. Oh, and there isn’t much history to it as I had mentioned I had seen TV spots because I didn’t see it in theaters. Instead, I watched it later when I caught it on HBO.

I had found out at some point that this film was an adaptation of a novel of the same name by John Westermann. I am now thinking of giving it a read but I suppose maybe Silver Pictures wanted to an adaptation of the novel (or maybe a script was already written). After all, “Romeo Must Die” was more of an urban take on “Romeo + Juliet,” so I guess maybe it being an adaptation is added to the trend? Perhaps.

So the story goes like this. Orin Boyd (Seagal) is your typical cowboy cop who has more of a body count than an arrest count as he mostly has a reputation for killing criminals than apprehending them. It starts off with him taking the vice president out of harms way in a less-than-ideal fashion, causing him to get moved to another precinct in Detroit where he gets demoted to a uniformed cop who has to guide traffic. However, Boyd notices some shady dealings going on within the precinct, some of which involved a crime boss named Latrell Walker, whom aroused Boyd’s suspicion about a conspiracy occurring.

I am certain this plot was used in the book, but because this is an action film, I noticed typical action tropes here, such as the aforementioned cowboy cop, along with shootouts, hand-to-hand fight sequences, explosions, and car chases. Hey, not that I was complaining. This film delivered a lot on that front. I know I keep mentioning RMD (“Romeo Must Die”), but with this film having a similar style and having the same director at the helm, it’s hard not to compare them. One thing I did notice is that there was some use of wires during some fight scenes. While it didn’t get ridiculous like RMD where it looked like Jet Li could defy gravity, it was in full effect in this fight scene, along with slow motion effects like dodging bullets.

Check out this compilation of fight scenes to see what I mean.

The film also delivered on the chase/driving scenes, as it well as its use of practical effects. I will admit that I chuckled at the sight of a dummy used in one scene but I’ll give it some credit for choosing a practical effect over a CGI effect.

There was also a little more humor in this film compared to RMD. Sure, there was some comic relief, mostly from Anthony Anderson, but because he returned, he provided some comedic scenes, as did Tom Arnold. I never had anything negative to say about Tom Arnold except that he doesn’t have that great of a filmography, but I had always liked him in “True Lies” and in this film, and “Cradle 2 the Grave.” The two had good comedic chemistry at the end of the film. So I found that part entertaining.

Oh, and I must talk about this. Regarding female characters, while no one played a love interest or anything like that, I noticed that there was some teased sexual tension between Seagal and Jill Hennessy, who was in this film, but for the most part, their relationship was treated as mostly professional. So any sort of sexual tension went nowhere after a couple of scenes. Interestingly enough, later that same year she would be on “Crossing Jordan,” which was a successful TV show. Then you have Eva Mendes. I later found out she was dubbed in all the scenes she was in. I know I had seen it multiple times but I never caught it until a few years ago and her voice sounded different. Check this out.

Not sure why this happened, either, but I like how the video also included an interview she did with Jon Stewart where she talked about the dubbing.

Another thing I found odd was that while this film was set in Detroit, Michigan, it was clearly shot in Toronto, Ontario, and no one even tried to hide it. I took a close look at the cars and in some scenes, no license plates were present, except in one where you can barely see a Michigan license plate. But when seeing some other scenes where you see building exteriors, you can see the logos of Canadian businesses. For example, I saw a sign of Pizza Pizza, which is a Canadian pizza chain, as well as a sign for Tim Hortons, which is another Canadian business. I mean, wow, it was only said that it was set in Detroit but it couldn’t have been more obvious that it was Toronto.

I could be biased because of the theme but I have always enjoyed this film. Yes, it’s definitely a product of its time with the hip-hop theme and the post-Matrix style of action, but I have always liked it. I am aware it’s not a good film because there are some parts that are stupid but I can still have fun with it. Plus, I like the soundtrack. Also, this Steven Seagal’s first film that had a theatrical release since 1997’s “Fire Down Below” as he had done a few straight-to-video films up to that point, but it wasn’t long until he had his final theatrical release about a year and two-thirds later (pardon if I got mathematical here) when “Half Past Dead” came out, which I have covered before. Hell, I am under the belief that instead of Ja Rule in that film, it was supposed be DMX, but I had read that he didn’t get along with Seagal on set. Like I have said, the man is notoriously hard to work with.

Man, this was long, wasn’t it? Well, I am not done with this series yet. Next up is “Cradle 2 the Grave.”

Movie Review – “Romeo Must Die”

Release Date: March 22, 2000

Production Companies: Warner Bros./Silver Pictures

It must be said. It’s been a long time coming that I was going to cover this film, along with two other films, and other things that are related. In fact, I wanted to do this a long time ago but other things happened. In other words, I am going to do a series of posts by starting with a review of this film, along with “Exit Wounds,” “Cradle 2 the Grave,” and the soundtrack albums to each respective film. Yes, that means six posts, but they all relate to one another for a number of reasons, which is why I often associate them with each other despite not really being connected in terms of story. As for the part about me wanting to do this a while back, better late than never, right?

Like many other posts I have done, I always have to start with a little history lesson. Here it goes. It was the second half of my eighth grade year. I remember going with my uncle and aunt to see “Next Friday” (still need to cover the first two “Friday” films, I know) and the trailer to this film was attached to it. I was intrigued for a number of reasons. One, I saw that DMX was featured in the trailer (more on this in a bit), and he was one of my favorite rappers when I was younger (probably one of my all-time favorites, too). Another thing was that Jet Li was in a movie as a lead. At that point, I was familiar with him through some Hong Kong action flicks that were imported out here like “Black Mask,” as well as portraying the villain in “Lethal Weapon 4.” Fast forward a couple of months later, I remember seeing this movie in theaters, alone, while others I went with went to see “Final Destination.” It wasn’t a big deal to see it alone as I do it often but at that time, it was different but again, not a big deal.

Of course, I remember seeing it and being that I was 13, almost 14, at the time, I thought it was one of the coolest things I had seen, but of course, even re-watches later on made me see some of the ridiculousness of some things.

Let’s make no mistake about this. This movie was a part of the post-Matrix craze that went on at the end of the 1990s to the early-2000s, and this film was release exactly one year after “The Matrix” was released. Many of the common tropes found are not just martial arts fight scenes, but also wire work and slow motion effects. Those were common in action films during that time.

But what stood out about this film was that it had a hip-hop theme to go with it. Regarding its title, it seemed more like an urban take on “Romeo + Juliet,” except there were no characters named Romeo or Juliet in this film (the only then-modern take up to that point was the 1996 film of “Romeo + Juliet”). However, there were similarities to the theme. There were two crime families at war. One person related to each family was somewhat of an outsider and somehow got involved in their respective family’s mess while also getting involved with each other.

To give some insight, the plot went like this: An African-American crime family and a Chinese crime family were at odds. However, a member of the Chinese family was murdered, which caused Han (Jet Li) to break out of prison in Hong Kong and head to the United States to find out who did it. However, Trish (the late Aaliyah), daughter of a crime boss, found herself entangled in stuff with her father’s associates. Stuff happens and all that. Though I had seen this movie multiple times as a teen, I think that plot elements became clearer in subsequent viewings, even as recent as now, especially after more than two decades.

That’s pretty much the story, but really, the main selling point of this film was the martial arts action mixed with the hip-hop theme. This film was likely shot in the late-1990s as it was released in 2000. You had a soundtrack consisting of rap/hip-hop music and R&B/soul music. There was an urban flavor in the film’s atmosphere with many characters rocking gear from FUBU and Enyce. Man, do I remember when those brands were in style, along with Phat Farm, Ecko Unlimited, Sean John, etc.

Before I get into the action, I will talk about the performances. While this film had a veteran actor like Delroy Lindo in the cast, as well as Isaiah Washington, this film was the acting debut of Aaliyah, who took a few years off from music to go to college and then do this film. At that time, I didn’t know what to think of this being that she wasn’t known for acting but she did a good job with what she had to work with. I also thought she and Jet Li had a good dynamic in this film, but with it supposedly being a love story, they didn’t kiss or anything like that. It didn’t bother me then and it doesn’t bother me now. Jet Li, on the other hand, well, this wasn’t a deep film but in some scenes when his character interacted with his character’s father, I thought he did fine.

Now it’s time to talk about the action. A lot of the action was well shot and well edited, with many different camera angles showing some attacks being thrown. However, some of them involved the use of wires and slow motion effects. Nothing wrong with that but there are scenes I could go on about. I think it would be better if I just show them to give some insight.

Then there is this scene, which is well-choreographed, but I have some other things to say about it.

I have to give credit to this scene. I wonder how many takes it took to perfect it. Both Jet Li and Aaliyah had great chemistry when doing this scene. I sometimes wonder if this scene inspired the beach fight scene in “22 Jump Street.” However, ever since I saw this in theaters as a teen, there were multiple fight scenes that incorporated some CGI into them with X-rays. For example, in the scene above, when that female assassin was knocked onto a sharp piece of wood, it cuts into an effect where you see her getting impaled onto it. Another one involved getting an arm broken. I mean I can understand what the director went for but even I thought it was a little unnecessary.

I have to say this. Though the poster and trailer suggested that DMX was going to have a big role, he was only in the film for two scenes. I know this is nothing new because I remembered that 1998’s “The Faculty” had Usher all over the advertisements but his role was far from huge. I mean, he was one of the leads in 1998’s “Belly” (a movie I am long overdue to cover), as well as “Exit Wounds” and “Cradle 2 the Grave,” but those came out after this. I suppose he was in it enough to have some songs on the soundtrack, including the song that was at the beginning. Except it wasn’t on the soundtrack album, but I will get to that when I cover that.

Also, I noticed that this film was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, but it was supposedly set in Oakland, California. What I noticed is that at the beginning of the film, it was obvious that the opening was shot in San Francisco, California with wide-angle shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as Fisherman’s Wharf and the Stockton Street Tunnel. It’s nothing new for films to be set somewhere but shot somewhere else. I mean this isn’t as blatant as it was in “Exit Wounds.” Oh, do I have a lot to say about that.

Despite some criticism for the fight scenes, I still enjoy this film. Maybe it’s because of nostalgia, but while I can acknowledge some issues with it, it doesn’t take away my enjoyment of it. I also feel like Aaliyah did well in her role and could have done more if she hadn’t died so soon. I am not going to get into that but I think she could have had a good acting career mixed with her music career. I know the only other movie she did was “Queen of the Damned.” Not sure if I will cover that because it doesn’t fit the theme but because she was an R&B singer and I am not opposed to covering R&B as well, it’s not out of the question.