Black Mask

Horrible dubbing. Cheesy overworked plot. Story that's been done and done and done. Implausabilities abound. Plot holes large enough to drive a cliche through. But MAN those fight scenes were incredible! If you go in looking for a serious piece of cinema, you'll leave unhappy. If you can't laugh at how horribly some of the humor flops, you'll be disappointed. If you go in to see Jet Li kicking butt -- something he is incredible at -- you WILL be happy. Scale: 1 to 10. I give it a 7, simply because I said, "WOW!" so many times.

This is probably the movie that made Jet Li well known in the States. The mask obviously reminds you of "Kato" in Green Hornet, and that homage alone was enough to secure this as one of the classics of Hong Kong martial arts movies.

A genetic experiment to create super soldiers is deemed a failure. All are ordered to be destroyed. One of them survives, and finds a peaceful life as a librarian until the old acquaintances shows up to finish their job.

The production of this movie is not its good part. It reminds you of the dingy atmosphere of '70s Hong Kong movies. But the idea is brilliant, and casting little known Jet Li at the time for the lead was a spectacular success. He really is believable as genetically enhanced super soldier. Very young Karen Mok plays an unwitting hostage to Li, and adds sideline to the story.

This genetically enhanced soldier scheme continued with other movies such as Huk Mau (Black Cat), which is in the same vain as this movie, with also "Black" as part of its title.

With fantastic moves like this, who wouldn't be a star ! Jet Li became the premier super star from this point on, which still is on going.

In Stand By Me, Vern and Teddy discuss who was tougher, Superman or Mighty Mouse. My friends and I often discuss who would win a fight too. Sometimes we get absurd and compare guys like MacGyver and The Terminator or Rambo and Matrix. But now it seems that we discuss guys like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li. It is a pointless comparison seeing that Lee is dead, but it is a fun one. And if you go by what we have seen from Jet Li in Lethal 4 and Black Mask, you have to at least say that he would match up well against Chan. In this film he comes across as a martial arts God.

Black Mask is about a man that was created along with many other men, to be supreme fighting machines. Their only purpose is to win wars that other people lose. They are invincible in some ways. Now that is the premise for the film, but what that does is sets up all the amazingly choreographed fight scenes.

Jet Li is a marvel. He can do things with and to his body that no human being should be able to do. And that is what makes watching him so fun.

Besides the martial arts in the film, Black Mask is strong with humour and that is due to the chemistry that Jet has with his co-star, the police officer. They are great together. But to be honest. if anyone is reading this review, they want to know if the film is kick ass in the action department. And the answer to that is a resounding YES!!! Lots and lots of gory mindless action. You will love this film.

The story would never win awards, but that's not what it's about... the script was just entertaining and suspenseful enough to make room for the incredibly choreographed fight scenes. Who needs a story with fighting like that? Really, it's worth watching for that reason alone. IF you can handle the gore, of which there is a LOT... none of it done realistically enough to be tough to look at. I gave it a 7.

Back then they didn't really have any hong kong superhero movies so Black Mask was something that stood out. It manages to be a superhero movie that knows it's unrealistic and embraces some of the campiness. It also had some R-rated looking scenes so it's not like a kid's superhero film. Jet Li and his co-star Sean Lau has good chemistry and really pulls off the action scenes.