Kiss of the Dragon

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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

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.

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.

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.

Variety Joe Leydon

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

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

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Lively but incredibly dumb.

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.

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.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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

New York Post Lou Lumenick

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

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.