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Diane Martel shook the cinematic landscape until the microphone trees fell with her frankly unbelievable choreography in the triumphant Life with Mikey, but now she has decided to open up the game.

Martel flips the "hood" genre on its nappy head by reworking the simplification of real lives that the media (and indeed directors like John Simpleton) has imposed on all forms of art from the "urban" sector. By placing these two semi-violent icons into an environment and plot which mirror the caricature nature of their "rap" personas, she places the impetus to laugh and to ridicule "thug life" firmly with us. "Laugh at Method Man," she says "laugh at Redman".

That said, this film looks like a Hype Williams video on crank. Messy costumes and over the top special effects (especially in the falling from a window scene) contribute to a blurring of the real issues. Without giving too much away, it goes without saying that the iron lungster and the funk doc blaze up some serious trees before the credits roll.

Has none of the look, style or panache of Hard Boiled, so don't be rushing to the video store counter with glee if you loved the first one. However, if you appreciate the sort of crazy, unbelievable choreography that John Woo made his name with - this is pretty close. It just won't have the quality of plot, characterisation or even, damn me for saying it, script. Funny subtitles, too.

Far from a remarkable movie. The romance lacks the panache or believability of Sleepless in Seattle and the supporting cast are meagre caricatures, despite the presence of Parker Posey and Greg Kinnear. The plot judders discernibly, though is drawn out, like most passable romantic movies, skillfully.

Put simply, there are far better cheap romances than this, a lot of recent teen movies and, notably, Sleepless in Seattle, which you should see before this.