Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Kiss of the Dragon

EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Kiss of the Dragon reviews
58
8.3 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 34 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Luc Besson
Robert Mark Kamen
Jet Li (story)

Directed by: Chris Nahon

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 6, 2001
DVD: January 22, 2002

Running Time: 98 minutes, Color

Origin: France

Summary

RATING: R for strong violence, language, some sexuality and drug content

Starring Jet Li, Bridget Fonda, Tchéky Karyo, and Max Ryan

Jet Li plays Liu Jiuan, China's top government agent, who arrives in Paris from Shanghai to carry out a sensitive, top-secret mission. (Twentieth Century Fox)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It is not merely a thriller but a shocker. It will separate hard-core Jet Li followers from the fair-weather fans.

Read Full Review >
90

LA Weekly John Patterson

The inventive, often comically horrible fight set pieces will have you standing on your seat cheering like a Viking, and the result is a supremely kinetic and amusing guilty pleasure.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice Jessica Winter

A veteran of commercials and music videos, director Chris Nahon crowds out too much of the sprawling combat gymnastics, but his film doesn't lack for luxuriously seedy ambience --his Paris is a retro-futurist sewer.

Read Full Review >
75

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Jet Li and Bridget Fonda form a terrific bond in this action film. And the choreography adds a nice kick, too.

Read Full Review >
75

Miami Herald Charles Savage

The Hollywood action genre, sliding into a lazy dependence on computer-generated fakery, needs this authentic kick to the head delivered by Jet Li.

Read Full Review >
75

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

This is all grimy, guy on guy fun, right down to the fevered, bad English dialogue.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Kiss of the Dragon is a straight-ahead star vehicle for the trim and terse Li, whose steady gaze and fist-flying ways are tempered by a gentlemanly mien.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I like the movie on a simple physical level. There is no deeper meaning and no higher skill involved; just professional action, well-staged and filmed with a certain stylistic elegance.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Mr. Li will come out of Kiss of the Dragon smelling like a rose; the combat couldn't be better. But next time around, he should leave the script to more capable hands.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Joe Leydon

Slick, straight-ahead action-thriller that marks a small step back and two bounding leaps forward for toplined Jet Li.

Read Full Review >
70

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The non-fighting parts of Kiss of the Dragon are, despite the presence of co-star Bridget Fonda, completely non-compelling. It's a proud convention in films like this for fans to mark time during exposition, waiting patiently for the action to start up again, and Kiss is very much in that tradition.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

This is a garish, rocket-fueled slice of popcorn mayhem, and the perfect antidote to this summer's limp action lineup.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The action scenes, including one on that tourist sightseeing staple, the Bateau Mouche, were directed by Cory Yuen with some creative touches, including a hail of chopsticks during a fight in a restaurant kitchen.

Read Full Review >
63

Boston Globe Jay Carr

What goes on when Li isn't fighting the bad guys isn't worth discussing; it's that stupid.

63

USA Today Mike Clark

Seeing this movie won't get you into MIT, but it's passable fun.

Read Full Review >
60

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

Will probably please hard-core action fans who have become inured to plot idiocies, but it remains a terrible waste of talent.

Read Full Review >
50

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The story is formulaic, but this brutal, fast-paced thriller makes excellent use of Li's martial arts prowess.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

It's one thing for a script to set the framework for an action film -- it's quite another when the script gets in the way.

50

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The new sexism -- the old sexism plus the idea that everything is ironic -- is getting old.

Read Full Review >
42

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Lively but incredibly dumb.

Read Full Review >
40

Washington Post Mark Jenkins

Too bad the filmmakers -- and here's where the American part comes in -- decided the movie had to have some heart, too.

Read Full Review >
40

Salon.com Charles Taylor

The most dispiriting thing about Kiss of the Dragon, is that it's another example of how Western filmmakers fall on their faces when they try to evoke the feel of Hong Kong action films.

Read Full Review >
40

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Offers just about a kill a minute, but less than a thrill a minute.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Li is powerless when the film slows to a crawl to provide a little drama.

Read Full Review >
30

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Mr. Li is a master not only of martial arts, but of composure; no one does nothing better. The film itself is no great shakes.

20

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

As though fatalistically compelled, all three leads self-destruct: Li is as flat, colorless, and stiff as a panel of Sheetrock, Karyo plays his every syllable in overdrive, and Fonda seems trapped in the midst of a failed screen test for Pretty Woman II.

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Finfrosk gave it a 10:
This is one of the coolest action-movies ever made. Never have I seen such incredibly cool fighting, and without computer-effects! The fighting-scenes are better than in The Matrix. Jet Li is the Bruce Lee of our time.

Lauwa gave it a 10:
It's one of my favourites by Jet Li!

[Anonymous] gave it an 8:
Awesome fight scenes, even by old-school HK standards, and the "drama" is so bad you'll be laughing.

Joe B. gave it a 3:
I give this movie 3 for Jet Li's excellent fight scenes, the rest of the movie rates a 0, the dialogue is puerile, the scipt is inane, the acting and direction stink. Who knows why Bridget Fonda was in the movie anyway....

Dan M. gave it a 1:
This was by far the worst movie that I have ever seen in the theatre. Insane plot, bad acting, and lackluster martial arts.

Dan F. gave it a 3:
Extremely lacking in plot, attractiveness, and class that you forget about the good martial arts.

Mustapha M. gave it a 10:
Maybe not the greatest storyline ever, but still one the most intense and entertaining films I've seen in a while.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use