Review: The One

There’s something to be said about a film that doesn’t bullshit around.

The One
Photo: Columbia Pictures

There’s something to be said about a film that doesn’t bullshit around. Jet Li knows how to kick ass, which he does in The One for a good 80 minutes non-stop. Sadly, there’s the issue of the film’s plot: something about our universe really being part of a multiverse (how droll). We have 123 versions of ourselves strewn across the galaxy; kill one of your lookalikes and you’ll grow stronger. Yulaw (the evil Li) wormholes his way to Los Angeles in order to eliminate the last remaining version of himself, Gabriel (the good Li). The problem is that Gabriel’s strength has increased proportionally to that of Yulaw’s, something Gabriel discovers rather inexplicably. While the film’s intergalactic traveling may be an unabashedly simple backdrop for Li’s graceful moves, the material’s semantics are ripe with unfulfilled possibilities. Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Statham)—agents for the Multiverse Bureau of Investigation—chase Yulaw from universe to universe, hoping to send the power-hungry wire-fu expert to planet Hades. Director James Wong does right by the film’s suspenseful MRI sequence though most of the film’s effects are noticeably hackneyed. More troubling is Li himself, speaking and acting more than he should be allowed to. Surely, The One will disappoint fans of Kiss of the Dragon. Then again, anyone who’s never heard of Hades may get a kick out of this self-masturbatory WWF sci-fi flick.

Score: 
 Cast: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Jason Statham, Delroy Lindo, Mark Borchardt, David "Shark" Fralick, Archie Kao, Kim McKamy  Director: James Wong  Screenwriter: Glen Morgan, James Wong  Distributor: Columbia Pictures  Running Time: 80 min  Rating: PG-13  Year: 2001  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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