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.