leonblackwood Review: This movie looked cheap and the acting was pretty terrible. The Kato looking caped crusader was awful and the storyline was also not that well put together. Basically, someone is going around taking out all of the drug lords so to protect his identity, Jet Li puts of a black mask to help them. He then finds out that the murders have something to do with his old squad, who he escaped from at the beginning of the film, so he ends up on a one man crusade for justice. Sounds interesting, but it's not! The annoying music and bad action scenes really made this film hard to watch. The fact that no one knows who the caped crusader is, made me laugh because it's obvious right from the beginning. Personally, I think that Jet Li should just put this down as a bad day at the office. Terrible!Round-Up: I couldn't help but laugh at the sound effects through this movie. They made it seem really cheap and it was hard to take the storyline seriously. Anyway, the big showdown at the end was weak even though there is a big build up throughout the movie and it seemed to go on forever. On the plus side, the movie is pretty short so you don't have to put up with it for that long. Now that I've only got a couple of Jet Li movies left to watch, he has definitely made more bad movies than good, which is a shame because it's not due to his acting or martial arts skills. Its basically down to bad choices which will hopefully be rectified in the latter part of his career.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $12.5millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their Jet Li movies about a caped crusader who protects his identity whilst fighting against drug lord murderers. 1/10

honorhorror What more could I say? The Americans totally hated it because the U.S. cut was so bad, although you could detect the underlying goodwill in it.Talking about the U.S. theatrical release(along with the newly released Blu-ray Disc version), it's faster and tighter than HK cut, the background musics were all changed from the dark, grim HK musics to Hip-hop musics; and there were a lot of gruesome scenes cut out. Though, the dubbing was a notable job given that they tried to capture the original actor's voice and tone. But, the problem is Hak Hap(Black Mask) the movie was designed and meant to be dark, grim, super-disturbing and totally gruesome. Very unfortunately the U.S. release just skimmed the cream they wanted, which in return completely changed the movie's undertone(HK release was rated 18+) to be even more comical and amateurish.Now let's talk about the original HK release. This movie is like a hidden gem, a prototype for the whole "matrix" tide and era. The fighting scenes are totally awesome even the camera works were a bit "old-school" among HK movies. However the style the movie created was a unique blend of Kungfu and pop culture. With all the leather, black costumes and decorations, this movie features a batman-like superhero in a black mask against a run-of-the-mill gang of multinational super-soldiers lead by a punk heavy metal rock star boss. Yes it sounds like imaginations of a retarded child, but it works. It's so impressive that the whole movie's gonna give you nightmares featuring foreigners fighting a bloodbath battle in leather coats. In year 2002 they made a sequel which had a PG-13 rating, but without Jet Li and Liu Qing Yun. And you know how bad that was because Li and Liu were the core characters in the movie and had strong personalities and an interesting friendship. And, did I happen to mention Francois Yip? Her roundhouse kick was totally cool, even cooler than the villain boss because she didn't use a stuntman for all the fighting. Did I mention she was also smoking hot? Anyway, there are a lot of things to like about the movie.However, the movie also suffered from a lot of problems. First off, it's a mediocre script made at its best potential, which means this production team deserved a better screen-writer. There are a lot climaxes in the entire 100 minutes but they often felt like far-fetched and don't totally make senses to the audiences(US version was even worse because all the character developments were cut). Anyway, you can't ask too much out of a comic-inspired action movie. Also, this movie is entirely improper for children. I won't recommend it to you if you are less than 20 years old. It's saturated with disturbing contents including blood, gore, sado-maso costumes, extreme brutal violence and so on. Along with the style of the movie, it can be called a wet dream for heavy-metal rock music fans and action fans. (the U.S. cut was milder, but if you want to see it, see the HK release for what it is.) 7/10. Status: inspiring, hidden, undervalued, adult.

peter_okelly OK, it's not a perfect movie by any means but I disagree with the overall IMDb opinion that it's really really bad. I watched a lot of Hong Kong flix in the 1990's and loved the era dearly. I never saw 'Black Mask' at the time and only saw it last week for the first time. Apart from the embarrassingly poor dubbing which my DVD copy didn't give me the option to turn off, the movie contains the raw energy and bravado that permeated Hong Kong movies during this time. I still stick to my guns in the opinion that, when it comes to action, these guys, no matter what their budget, add an element of magic to the screen no Bourne Supremacy, Casino Royale or Mission Impossible (I'm not knocking these movies - I just reckon they lack the spontaneity of this one and feel too regulated) will ever achieve. What is it? It's the feeling that the film-makers were experimenting as they shot and edited, not afraid to leave in some blemishes so as to learn lessons for the next time. For me, this makes watching movies, all the more fun and dangerous.

gangstahippie Rated R for strong violence including martial arts combat, some sexual content and language. Quebec Rating:16+(should be 13+) Canadian Home Video Rating:18AI used to have Black Mask on VHS but I gave it to my cousin a long time ago.It was on TV a few days ago however and I decided to watch it.Black Mask is in my opinion Jet Li's best film.The storyline is pretty good and the fight/action scenes are amazing.Seriously if you like martial-arts film then you will love this movie! The film is about a quiet and nice librarian who before was a test subject for this project to create supersoldiers.While he leads a humble life, all the other people who were test subjects have turned to a life of crime.The cops cant do anything about it so he puts on a black mask and basically becomes a superhero who stops these criminals.Black Mask is an entertaining martial-arts/sci-fi film.