Abundantly clichéd for its entire two hours (rival gangs fight all day and everyday; a lone maverick fends off baddies by the score and wins), "Romeo Must Die" finds freshness in the humour which director Andrzej Bartkowiak splices in at just the right moments. In fact, the best scenes mesh together the kind of super-gymnastic moves and dotty fun which would make Jackie Chan go green.

Also combining martial arts and kung fu (the nod towards "Romeo and Juliet" is simply a gesture), "Romeo Must Die" is a firecracker action caper in which the ultra-agile characters cannot even begin a conversation without fighting. Two rival gangs - one Chinese, one black - are competing for ever-larger chunks of filthy lucre. One of the two sons of the Chinese ganglord is killed in battle, and so the other son - in an amusing scene where he breaks out of a jail / torture chamber with Superman-like ease - pops over to the West Coast to sweep any number of nasties off the streets. His ability to tie up a bunch of goons with their own belts, and his inability to play American football provide two of quite a number of kung fu comic highlights.

Bartkowiak builds the tension not only by slick editing but also by developing two separate storylines and switching from one to the other just when you want to know more. Inevitably the visiting loose cannon connects with the sassy daughter of the black gangster (played by Delroy Lindo, who couldn't look unthreatening if he tried). Pacy, silly fun.

Find out more about "Romeo Must Die" at the official site.

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