Remember To Spay And Neuter Your Bodyguard

Last Friday night/early Saturday morning, I caught Unleashed on TV. It's one of those movies that sounded really interesting when I first saw commercials for it, I just never got around to going to see it, or renting it. And why should I rent it? That's why I'm paying for cable, isn't it?

Anyway, it's got Bob Hoskins (Bart) playing a small-time British thug, a wannabe Wilson Fisk, and his special bodyguard, Jet Li with a collar. Collar's on, Jet Li (Danny) is docile. Collar off, Danny will kick your ass. Bart supposedly found Danny in the gutter as a child and raised him like an attack dog, with Danny basically living in a cage under Bart's office. Long story short, Danny catches a break and gets some time away from Bart, discovers a happier life, and then has to defend the new life against the old one. That's always a nice little story. It's like Cassandra Cain: The Movie. Only without making me angry.

A trend throughout seems to be for a character to appear, then reappear later to take the story some place a little different, or maybe just further it along. Danny beats up Fellow #1 in his own jewelry store, for refusing to pay protection money, while Fellow #2 looks on with interest. Fellow #2 appears later with an offer for Bart, and Fellow #1 shows up again to ultimately provide Danny with his chance for something new.

And of course, this movie has Morgan Freeman (Sam), which, as you may remember, makes it 23.8% better than it would be with any other actor. I meant to get an image of Morgan Freeman and photoshop the phrase "The Morgan Freeman Corollary Is In Effect!" on it, but I haven't yet. I'll get to it soon. Promise. Really. I mean it.

Sam is, as you might expect, a stabilizing influence on Danny, a counter to Bart's violence and crudeness. Sam, and his stepdaughter Victoria (played by Kerry Condon), both help draw Danny out, mostly through the piano, which Danny seems to love, but also just through being kind. Bart acts kind towards Danny, offering him anything he wants after Danny helps net them 15 grand, but it always seems clear that Danny is just a means to an end with Bart. If Danny fails, Bart beats him, or treats him poorly, and knows Danny will simply accept that as the way things are. Sam and Victoria want to help and protect Danny even when its clear he's had some rough experiences that might make him dangerous, even when it's abundantly clear that Danny's presence has jeopardized their lives.

I think Bob Hoskins plays Bart as a sort of mirror of Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In that, he hides a good person under a sheen of cynicism and anger (and booze). I think Bart is just a small-time, vicious hood who lucked out, and now he tries to hide that under his nice clothes, and pretending it was a great humanitarian act, taking Danny in and raising/training him as he did.

Victoria plays a sort of geeky, but very friendly and helpful teenager who's very excited about their unusual house guest. She reminds me of Cyclone from Justice Society, especially when she starts rambling on to Danny, while he stands there bewildered. I like that they had a scene where Victoria raises a little fuss over still being walked to school, and we learn she just recently turned 18. Perhaps anticipating people perceiving a romantic relationship between her and Danny, who is probably older than her? I know Jet Li is over 40 (it's a little frustrating that he can move better at almost 45 than I probably have ever been able to, but he put in the training and I didn't, so there you go) , but I'm not clear on how old Danny is supposed to be. Mid-20s? I'm not sure whether there is anything romantic there. Danny may feel something like that for her, he does try to buy her a present at one point, and Victoria may be sweet on him, or she may just be having protective feelings for him. Or he's just someone to be her friend, as I kind of got the feeling she didn't have many at school.

One thing that didn't work for me was the fellow in white that Danny has an extended fight with at the end. He appears briefly in one scene shortly before then, just sitting in a corner watching things play out, and the next thing you know he's working for Bart, trying to kill Danny. He seemed an unnecessary addition; they could have just stuck to "Danny fights vast amount of thugs, lead by person who knows - or thinks they know - how Danny thinks". But I appreciate that writer Luc Besson and director Louis Leterrier took the time to really show us Danny interacting with Sam and Victoria, and how he interacts in their world, so that it makes it that much more jarring when Danny gets dragged back into Bart's world. I really was surprised at how long of a stretch there was in the middle of the film where Jet Li didn't hit anyone. it was a surprise, but it was a good decision I think.

I'm still refusing to grade things I review, so I will just say that staying up to watch Unleashed threw off my sleep cycles for about four days, and I consider it totally worth it.