p e n g u i n d e v i l

Ah, yes, Danny the Dog, a sweet and silly and violent crime drama… Jet Li is the titular Danny, a fellow trained from youth by a Glasgow gangster, Uncle Bart (Bob Hoskins), to be his enforcer. Danny is a introverted, non-emotional guy who just stands and stares, wearing a collar around his neck. Once the collar is removed (uncollered, I would think, but Unleashed is what the movie is called here in the states) things change… See, Danny has been trained to respond with violence when “his master” removes the collar and gives the command. Lots and lots of Jet Li hand-to-hand violence as Danny becomes an unstoppable and unquestioning killing machine. Hoskins is, as always, great as Bart. He is the best when it comes to playing harsh and violent, mid-level, gangsters from the UK whose success is rather tenuous. He can portray such great attitude, charm and cruelty that it’s quite convincing. Here he is content to just sit back and collect his money, casually having people beaten and killed if they oppose him. While Bart stands around in his white suits looking smug and his other toughies don’t seem to do much, Danny is given all the work to do… Getting these dead-beats to pay Bart what they owe him. It seems like a lot of dead-beats like to borrow money from Bart, so we are given many, many crazy fight scenes, where Danny is heavily outnumbered but takes out all of his opponents. After one particularly public scene, Bart is presented with a business proposition. He is approached by a fellow who runs a secret underground fighting pit where rich folks can wager big sums against pit fighters, fighting to the death. Bart begins to see a door of riches about to open before him, with Danny as the key.

But right as Bart is on the verge of the big money, they get separated and Danny retreats to a place where he had recently met Sam, a friendly (and blind) piano tuner (Morgan Freeman). Sam takes him in where he undergoes a quick course in life lessons courtesy of the piano tuner and his daughter, Victoria. Learning all sorts of things: cooking, grocery shopping, eating ice cream, his first kiss (yes, the movie gets like that).

But of course, it can’t be all sunshine. Glasgow’s not quite big enough to avoid the baddies and at one point, the underworld comes calling. Comes calling in big numbers. See, Uncle Bart wants his dog back and will stop at nothing to get him. After all, he sees his retirement on the line! And so begins the battle for Danny the Dog to stay a dog, or to become a man. With sweet old Sam and Victoria in the middle of it.

Ok, that was a bit corny, but in between the fighting and car accidents and blood, there is a melodramatic search for his past and his future, and a corny ending. And while the fights scenes are excessive and violent, they do feel a bit staged, especially the big scenes against the punk rocker mob. I felt like I was watching a dance routine a la MJ’s Bad.