CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE

CAST: Jet Li, DMX, Anthony Anderson, Kelly Hu, Tom Arnold, Mark Dacascos, Paige Hurd, Gabrielle Union

DIRECTOR: Andrzej Bartkowiak

" ‘Cradle 2 the Grave’ is Jet Li-propelled. But the martial artiste's elegant acrobatics are about all this hackneyed hooey has to offer. Basically, it's just another sappy odd-couple movie in which the unlikely partners prevent a smirky, evil foreigner in a sharp suit from destroying the universe…The witless, malingering plot makes not a lick of sense…The story has been plumbed solely to provide as many fight scenes, car chases and elaborate stunts as possible…Gabrielle Union, the star of ‘Deliver Us From Eva,’ is just plain abused." --Rita Kempley, The Washington Post

" ‘Cradle 2 the Grave’ is a violent, dumb, offensive mess, a train wreck that stitches together one adrenaline-gushing action sequence after another in ways having nothing to do with logic or common sense and everything to do with a director who knows only one rule: Keep it moving…It's also shamelessly formulaic, without an actor or even a thought that wasn't chosen on the basis of some demographic study…And for good measure, make the title cutting-edge cool by using the number ‘2’ in it instead of the word ‘to.’ Kids love that stuff." --Chris Kaltenbach, The Baltimore Sun

"More bread and circuses from Joel Silver, the prolific producer of high-end thrillers like ‘The Matrix’ and low-end junk like ‘Swordfish.’ Into the latter category toss ‘Cradle 2 the Grave,’ a noisy, noisome and grammatically incorrect Los Angeles-based thriller that finds martial arts maestro Jet Li, as a Taiwanese government agent named Su, playing second banana to hip-hop's DMX… Li can kick, punch, slap and leap his way out of any ugly situation, but he's rarely given the chance in ‘Cradle 2 the Grave’…With so little trust and even less dialogue to back him up, it's no wonder Li rarely takes his left hand out of his pants pocket. His fists aren't furious; they're on strike." --Manohla Dargis, The Los Angeles Times

"… a movie that has the flailing momentum of a defective action toy run amok…In teaming Mr. Li with the rapper DMX, Mr. Bartkowiak perpetuates the unwieldy generic hybrid he helped invent in which chest-beating hip-hop attitude fuses with airy kung-fu magic." --Stephen Holden, The New York Times

" ‘Cradle 2 the Grave’ is a tad more complicated than it needs to be, considering the story is merely something to justify the action sequences, which aren't as spectacular as this sort of film needs. Viewers need their minds blown with stunts, and that never happens here. Somehow, rapper DMX leading police on a chase while navigating an all-terrain vehicle doesn't cut it…Audiences should exit this one with a big, collective yawn." --Kevin C. Johnson, Saint Louis Post-Dispatch