True U.S. stardom may continue to elude Jet Li as long as he opens his mouth. Unlike his other, better-spoken former Hong Kong contemporaries (including Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-fat), Jet is hampered by his limited English-speaking skills and a somewhat lispy delivery that makes him sound like an Asian Peter Lorre.

Unfortunately, that makes it hard to take him very seriously — no matter how much the action star kicks butt.

So on the surface, "Kiss of the Dragon" would appear to be the perfect vehicle for Jet. This action thriller doesn't require him to do a whole lot of speaking or emoting — instead, it allows him to concentrate on what he does best — kicking butt.

However, while the film is action-packed, at times it's downright nasty and mean-spirited (this is definitely a hard R-rated movie), which may put off a lot of its target audience.

"Kiss of the Dragon" is also fairly transparent in its attempt to posit Jet as the "next Bruce Lee" — right down to the title, which suggests one of the early '70s films starring the late Lee, who is still revered by many as the greatest martial-arts hero ever seen in the states.

Jet stars here as Liu Jiuan, a Chinese agent sent to Paris to oversee the arrest of a drug lord. However, he's double-crossed by his French counterpart, detective Richard (Tcheky Karyo), and framed for the criminal's murder.

So Liu finds himself on the run, with few places to turn. Complicating things further is Jessica (Bridget Fonda), a prostitute who witnessed the murder but who agrees to help him if he'll help her get her daughter back.

Director Chris Nahon and a pair of screenwriters (including filmmaker Luc Besson, who also produced the film) take a simple story and muddle it beyond belief. That's why it's fortunate that they have numerous fight scenes, which were choreographed by Jet and frequent collaborator Cory Yuen, and which are free of in-vogue "wire-fu" techniques.

The best of these is a sequence in which Jet takes on a room full of martial artists. Unfortunately, there's still not nearly enough action to compensate for murky plotting and unsympathetic characters.

In particular, Fonda's an annoyance — one the film certainly didn't need. And then there's the strictly one-note performance by Karyo, who tries to match Jet's sheer physicality by going over the top as often as possible. (Sharp-eyed viewers may notice character-actor Burt Kwouk, from the "Pink Panther" movies, wasted in a supporting role as Liu's Chinese contact in Paris.)

"Kiss of the Dragon" is rated R for violence (martial-arts combat, gunfire and a graphic stabbing), graphic gore, occasional profanity, simulated drug use (heroin and amphetamines), simulated sex and use of crude sexual slang terms. Running time: 98 minutes.

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E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com