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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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64
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69
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You, the Living
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Kiss of the Dragon
EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site Official Jet Li Site
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...
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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
This is all grimy, guy on guy fun, right down to the fevered, bad English dialogue.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >Boston Globe Jay Carr
What goes on when Li isn't fighting the bad guys isn't worth discussing; it's that stupid.
USA Today Mike Clark
Seeing this movie won't get you into MIT, but it's passable fun.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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.
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The new sexism -- the old sexism plus the idea that everything is ironic -- is getting old.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Offers just about a kill a minute, but less than a thrill a minute.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Li is powerless when the film slows to a crawl to provide a little drama.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
