Movie Review: Cradle 2 The Grave

When his spunky daughter is kidnapped and held in exchange for priceless diamonds, the leader of a gang of highly skilled heist experts (DMX), forges an unlikely alliance with a Taiwanese Intelligence officer (Jet Li) to rescue her. The "diamonds" are more than what they seem and the duo's race against time to find the precious stones ultimately leads to the discovery of a plot to distribute a deadly new war weapon.

Cradle 2 The Grave is sexy, violent , explosive, action packed and loud...everything you want in a Jet Li film. Tom Arnold and Anthony Anderson (Kangaroo Jack) provide great comic relief and Jet Li's stunts are awesome.. dropping from balcony to balcony outside a building catching himself with his arms..talk about upper body strength! A final battle between Li and icy/hot Mark Dacascos in a ring of fire is very hot.

The women in the film are either kick-butt sex objects or evil ice queens. Gabrielle Union is very spicy as the seductress member of the heist gang. Kelly Hu (Scorpion King) has little to do but is great as the cold female baddie.. she and Gabrielle have a creative fight scene. DMX is impressive as a tough guy with a soft interior when it comes to his feisty 8-year-old daughter. "Cradle" seems very close to Hong Kong films in the extent of martial arts fight action but a little time is given to develop a story as well. The plot is "Bondish" but Interesting and frightening especially as we are on the edge of war. What if baddies could produce a new kind of "portable" plutonium that can deliver infinite nuke power?

Some of the dialogue is hokey, especially when DMX is begging for thugs to spare his child but we don't go to this genre of film for the sterling dialogue. The fast-paced action and creative chase sequences are fine-tuned by director Andrzej Bartkowiak, who earlier directed ``Romeo Must Die'' starring Li, ``Exit Wounds'' with DMX and was in charge of photography for ``Lethal Weapon IV'' and ``Speed''.

The soundtrack is punchy rap that accentuates the action. DMX wrote and recorded three songs for the soundtrack and collaborated with Eminem on the under-opening credits track. Stick around for a great off-the-cuff comic routine by Arnold and Anderson under the closing credits.

Fans of the genre and Li won't be disappointed with this one.. 4 out of 5 stars.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.