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Romeo Must Die

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 17, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 17.

  • Is it any good?

    1.0
  • Common Sense says

    This hip-hop Romeo and Juliet is awful.

Why We Rated This not for kids

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    A theme of the movie.
  • Violence:

    Lots of fighting, characters killed.
  • Sex:

    Brief, including lesbian scene.
  • Language:

    Very strong language.
  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Drinking, smoking, and drug use.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Romeo Must Die was written by Nell Minow

Parents need to know that this movie has very strong violence, some girl/girl kissing, drug use, and that it's really dumb (especially the ending, in which Han and Trish wander out of a house full of dead people, and the police completely ignore them).

Families Can Talk About

Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
  • Families can talk about racism and the way that children prove their independence, or maybe just how such bad movies get made.
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More on Romeo Must Die

What’s the Story?

In this hip-hop take on Romeo and Juliet, Isaak O'Day (Delroy Lindo) is a gangster who dreams of going legit. He loves his children, Colin (D.B. Woodside) and Trish (Aliyah) deeply and wants to protect them. But Colin wants to "be a man," and for him that means taking matters into his own hands. Kai Sung (Russell Wong) is the leader of the rival gang. Like O'Day, he has a son who wants to be a player. He and O'Day are trying to get the deeds to the shoreline property in their districts, to turn it over to a sleazy developer. When Sung's son is killed, his brother Han (Jet Li) breaks out of a Hong Kong prison to come to the US to avenge his death. He meets Trish, and they find that they have more in common with each other than with their sides in the fight.

Is It Any Good?

ROMEO MUST DIE is a tired tale of rival gangsters. Fans of martial arts will do well to wait for it to come out on video, so they can fast-forward through all the meaningless exposition and endless shots of people giving mean and meaningful looks at each other and get to the good stuff.

There are some nice fight scenes, though it seems an insult to Jet Li's extraordinary talent to trick them up with computer graphics. If we want to see people suspended in the air while they kick each other, we can rent The Matrix. Little flashes of x-ray shots of bones being crunched are an interesting touch. When you're fast-forwarding the video, be sure to stop and see it.

Movie Details

Studio: Warner Bros., Director: Bart Bartkowiak
Run time: 115 minutes
Theatrical release: 3/24/2000
MPAA Rating: R for language, violence, and nudity

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Most Recent Reviews

  1. I rate this title iffy for age 11 and give it 4.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate language

    There's martial arts violence and some other bad stuff. But it's not too bad. I saw it when I was fairly young.

  2. Adult Reviewer
    I rate this title on for age 10 and give it 5.0

    its my luck to see this site

    not very important

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