In this hip-hop-infused actioner, martial-arts maestro Jet Li bounces off walls and dodges bullets while disposing of predatory demons with a flurry of fists — he’s Spider-Man or Daredevil sans the masked muscle suit. The opening sequence finds his Taiwanese supercop descending a skyscraper by free-falling from balcony to balcony. Then there’s the Ultimate Fighter contest where he takes on all contestants (at once!) while crowd-surfing. Unfortunately all these adrenaline-pumping vignettes are strung together by a preposterous plot that teams Li with rapper DMX, who plays a high-tech jewel thief with a heart of gold. We know that’s so because he has an eight-year-old daughter, but she’s merely ransom bait to send our heroes on a perilous quest to retrieve a bag of black diamonds and thwart an illegal arms cartel.

Cradle reunites DMX and Li with director Andrzej Bartkowiak, who directed them in various projects including Romeo Must Die. Li's trademark laconic charisma plays well throughout; DMX, however, appears lost when the drama requires an emoting gear beyond brooding. Gabrielle Union throws her warm smile into the mix as an inviting thief, and Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold provide the scant chuckles as DMX’s fool-hearted sidekicks. (100 minutes)