This ‘Cradle’ will rock the box office

No, “Cradle 2 the Grave” doesn’t qualify as a profound artistic achievement or a life-enhancing ornament to our civilization, but it so far exceeds all reasonable expectations that it certainly commands praise. This release may constitute an example of slick, violent, exploitative entertainment, but it is entertaining – a rare enough quality in contemporary films.

Martial arts icon Jet Li (a younger, less good-natured answer to Jackie Chan) shares top billing with rapper DMX, an actor so charismatic, confident and comfortable on screen that he easily steals the movie. DMX plays the leader of a sophisticated band of jewel thieves who open the movie by bringing off a high-tech heist, only to face ferocious pursuit by the police as well as mysterious others. Jet Li plays one of those additional parties trying to recover the jewels, some of which are actually weapons of mass destruction which have been disguised as jewels in order to facilitate their sale to various terrorists and criminals.

The chief bad guy orchestrating this dastardly transaction is the chiseled and scowling Mark Dacascos, ably assisted by the chiseled and scowling (and outrageously glamorous) Kelly Hu. These two kidnap the cute and spunky 8-year-old daughter of the dashing DMX character (a devoted single dad, we’re told), so he mobilizes his personal posse (Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union and, amusingly enough, Tom Arnold) to liberate the captured kid and save the world. Jet Li provides quick-kicking assistance in his role as a Taiwanese secret agent, assigned to bring the stolen explosives back to his government.

Director Andrzej Batkowiak (who previously provided competent leadership to the much-discussed genre films “Exit Wounds” and “Romeo Must Die”) again deploys irresistible visual flair – as you might expect from a veteran Hollywood cinematographer widely admired for his camera work on movies ranging from “Terms of Endearment” to “Speed.” Here, the action scenes unfold with perfect pacing and unexpected immediacy, once you accept the preposterous notion that even the most minor characters possess world-class martial arts skills. Jet Li will never be a candidate for complex, dramatic roles, but he delivers his lines in comprehensible English most of the time and delivers his leaps and chops and kicks with a potent athleticism that makes him plausibly lethal.

DMX, on the other hand, manages every scene with effortless expertise, including the tender and touching interludes with his on-screen daughter. The versatility and intensity he brings to this sympathetic role should win him far more serious parts in the future: He could probably handle the sort of substantive assignments most regularly reserved for the likes of Denzel Washington and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Gabrielle Union also deserves better opportunities (as she received in the under-rated “Deliver Us From Eva”) than the mostly decorative assignment she draws here, but she seems to actually enjoy the sizzling striptease she performs to distract one of the bad guys at a crucial juncture.

Anthony Anderson, meanwhile, provides first-rate comic relief, continuing his string of energizing efforts in major recent hits such as “Barbershop” and “Kangaroo Jack.” Anderson clearly could carry his own movie vehicles, as one of the most gifted of the new generation of African-American comedians. A bit of apparently improvised whimsy between Anderson and Tom Arnold (playing a charming sleaze-ball who helps DMX out of genial opportunism) turns up at the very conclusion of the end-credits, and should persuade moviegoers to stay in their seats till the lights go up.

Of course, the plot piles one nonsensical premise onto another and the electrifying actors must wade their way through knee-deep cliches, but the film will provide action audiences with their money’s worth, and more. The “R” rating comes from the aforementioned strip-tease scene and some earthy language, though the violence is never so graphic or sadistic that it would have taken the picture past the “PG-13” realm.

A series of spectacular fireballs near the end should gratify all die-hard fans of pyrotechnics, but nothing can explain the mystifying and irrelevant title. The 8-year-old girl featured at the heart of the action doesn’t really fit in a cradle, and nothing about the plot prominently connects with graves – but it’s not a (ahem) grave problem when the rest of the film barrels along with so much energy and assurance. This “Cradle” will rock at the box office. TWO AND A HALF STARS.