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Cradle 2 the Grave, Jet Li, DMX, Kelly Hu

Cradle 2 the Grave, Jet Li, DMX, Kelly Hu Nude
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Synopsis of the DVD Movie: Cradle 2 the Grave, Jet Li, DMX, Kelly Hu

Leader. Thief. Warrior. Father. Armed with a potent combination of charisma, street smarts and martial arts expertise, Tony Fait navigates the menace of the urban landscape with passionate precision, taking care of business and his fiercely loyal crew of professionals with a dedication surpassed only by his love for his young daughter Vanessa. After pulling off a complex heist involving a cache of black diamonds, Fait quickly comes fist-to-fist with Su, a Taiwanese government agent who has pursued the extraordinary stones halfway across the world. As lethal as he is relentless, Su isn't just hunting down diamonds--he's hunting the ruthless Ling, his former partner, who kidnaps Fait's daughter in a ploy to exchange her for the stolen jewels. But when word hits the street that Fait stashed the stones with his fence Archie, the diamonds promptly wind up in the hands of a powerful crime lord. His back to the wall, Fait mobilizes his crew, suspends his strict no-guns policy and prepares to unleash every force at his disposal to save his daughter. But only Su knows Ling well enough to anticipate his every move--and after he dispenses with Ling's operatives, Su could be his best hope for bringing Vanessa home alive. Adversaries by code but allied by circumstance, the master thief and the enigmatic agent join forces to wage war on their common enemy: Su to exact revenge against the man who once tried to take his life, and Fait to rescue Vanessa, the one person that he cannot live without.

DVD Movie Rating for: Cradle 2 the Grave

DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews DVD Movie Rating and Reviews Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Cradle 2 the Grave

A team of professional thieves are hired to rob a jewelry exchange. Now a Chinese guy throws a monkey wrench into their plans. When it's over all that they got is a bag full of black gems which is what the man who hired them wanted. Now the leader brings it to his fence. Now the Chinese man shows up wanting the gems. He also tells him that they are not gems. When they goes to the fence to get them, they discover that someone stole them. His daughter has been kidnapped by the man who owns the stones, and wants them back. They discover that the one sho stole them is a rival of the criminal, while they go to every single one of his associates to find who has them. The man who kidnapped his daughter is also doing what he can to find them.

DVD Production Details of: Cradle 2 the Grave

Starring: Jet Li, DMX, Kelly Hu

Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby

Studio: Warner Home Video

DVD Release Date: August 12, 2003

Cradle to the Grave Video Quality Review

Can you believe it? Another stellar transfer for a movie with about as much depth as an empty bathtub. The quality of this image is for the most part striking in its clarity, apart from a couple of instances with the obvious rear-projection subway sequence from Speed as well as a couple of transitional shots that almost look like they were taken from stock footage elsewhere. Colours are as vibrant and fully saturated as you'd want to get in any film with the black levels and shadow detail coming in just as strongly even in all the night time sequences. Grain is virtually non-existent except for the two faulty points mentioned earlier. Film and digital artifacts are about as rare as classical music in this film.

Cradle to the Grave Audio Quality Review

If you've ever wanted your Porsche, 4WD or Quadbike to sound their gruntiest, you've picked the right DVD for the job. Right away you will notice your subwoofer happily bopping away to all the hip hop music that floods this movie's soundtrack as well as the very meaty support for the various action set-pieces and vehicle pass-by's that occur regularly.

Dialogue is loud enough to be heard above the din but I had to refer to the subtitles when certain passages flew past me without total intelligibility - this isn't the fault of the recording so much as the ennounciations of nearly all the characters (including the antics of Tom Arnold). Surround channel usage is given the five-star treatment with the all-important ambient and directional sound placements helping to involve us in the action. Again, the subwoofer is used almost to the point of overuse where the many scenes that don't really require such a heavy back-end (like the body thumps and even the number of phones that DMX throws to the floor) is given every opportunity to sing here.

Cradle to the Grave DVD Extras

This DVD has the least amount of supplemental material available from their catalogue of titles ever (15 minutes at most), although I doubt there is much that can really be said about this film's merits in cinematic history.

There are two featurettes in the text menus (and two others as easter eggs). The first one entitled Ultimate Fighting Champions (8 mins) looks quite promising at first as a behind-the-scenes foray into the development of the Underground Bloodsport action sequence but ultimately is just a series of on-set discussions with Jet Li, Joel Silver and the real-life professional fighters. The Descender Rig (3 mins) is much more interesting as we find out how the character of Su drops from one floor to the next of a multi-storey building. The easter egg featurettes are of a quick trivia video clip about the boxing sequence and a welcome insight into the tried-and-true method of rear-screen projection.

The Music Video by DMX (4 mins) has to be one of the cheapest productions I've ever seen for a video clip and the song itself is much less inspiring in my mind. The Cast & Crew one-page listing holds even less hope for something substantial in its creation and finally there is the Theatrical Trailer.

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Cradle 2 the Grave

Photo Gallery of the movie: Cradle 2 the Grave

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Wallpapers Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, DMX and Kelly Hu
Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, DMX and Kelly Hu Nude
Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, DMX and Kelly Hu Nude
Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, DMX and Kelly Hu Nude
Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, DMX and Kelly Hu Nude
Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, DMX and Kelly Hu Nude
Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li, DMX and Kelly Hu Nude

Reviews of the movie: Cradle 2 the Grave

The intriguing cross-pollination of rap and kung-fu continues with Cradle 2 the Grave, co-starring high-profile rapper DMX and Hong Kong superstar Jet Li. Master thief Fait (DMX) hits a diamond exhange but comes away with a bag of black gems of mysterious origin. When a crime kingpin steals the gems from Fait, an international arms dealer kidnaps Fait's beloved daughter--and Fait can only get her back with the help of Su (Li), a Taiwanese intelligence agent tracking the gems himself. A summary of the plot doesn't do Cradle 2 the Grave justice; while the basic story elements suggest a dozen generic action flicks, the cast (including Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union, and Kelly Hu) has genuine charisma and the movie layers action on top of action to strong effect. All in all, a much more engaging thrill ride than you'd expect

Popular rapper DMX has teamed up in an earlier martial arts film with Steven Seagal, and has stepped his role in action films up a notch with martial arts superstar Jet Li, who has (to my mind)established himself as one of the greatest martial arts stars of our time.

DMX's role is Tony Fait, a smooth (but somewhat excitable)master thief. He and his crew (including the lovely Gabrielle Union and his partner-in- crime from the afore-referenced "Exit Wounds" Anthony Anderson) break into a diamond exchange, and steal a cache of black diamonds. They were created by the Taiwanese government, and when agitated (kinda like what we saw as the principal weapon in the fifth Bond flick "Diamonds Are Forever") unleash incredible energy. They were originally stolen by the real bad guy Ling (Mark Dacascos), who intends to auction them off to a room full of worldwide nogoodnicks. Ling then abducts DMX's baby girl to ransom them back. And as they say, it is ON.

You cannot have these guys together without great fight scenes, and this movie does not disappoint. Jet Li has an incredible nonchalance about himself, and actually fights (and easily handles, of course) his first few adversaries with one hand in his pocket! He has to use both hands, though, when he ends up in the middle of a brawl with a crew of Ultimate Fighters. Of course, he can, and does, without raising much of a sweat (but he does get around to tossing around a midget as a "weapon").

Just as he did in Exit Wounds, Tom Arnold provides some comic relief (among his best lines: "I cannot read Chinese, but I know cop in every language").

Forget about the folks who dog out this movie. The acting is just fine. This script does not call for Meryl Streep, and neither is it incredibly thought provoking screenplay. It does not need to be. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is, a slammin', ultra-violent, retribution filled, sexy action film. While I thought at first that the one-handed fight scenes were a bit much, as another reviewer noted, it does show another side of the virtuosity of Jet Li. And I don't really care whether Kelly Hu (bad-guy Ling's equally ultra-fine sidekick) would have beat down Gabrielle Union in two seconds "in real life". The two of them on the screen is worth seeing, in my humble opinion.

Like action movies? Then this one is for you. Enjoy it for what it is, and you will have spent a great ninety minutes.

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Last Modified: 10-Jul-2011 12:24