Robin Turner As a t'ai chi player, I watched this film hoping to see a lot of t'ai chi (I'd already started running scenarios in my head where the brash young Jet Li learns t'ai chi from Michelle Yeoh). In this respect, and only in this respect, I was disappointed, as this is not a t'ai chi film but a story about how t'ai chi came to be. In every other respect, I was supremely satisfied. This is first class wuxia, alternating crazy fights with goofy humour, with a little tragedy and philosophy thrown in. Of course this mix will probably be insufferable to anyone who isn't into wuxia, but if you like the kind of martial arts films where combatants call out the name of the move they're about to do, you'll love this. Incidentally, you'll notice the inspiration for a fight in Charlie's Angels in one of the early scenes: "And this one's called knocking you on the head."

callanvass Chin-Bo & Junbao are expelled when Chin-Bo snaps on his opponent for cheating. Despite trying to explain, they get thrown out anyway. Junbao begins to get worried about Chin-Bo's incessant need for power. When Chin-Bo joins the rebellion, Junbao's fears come to life when Chin-Bo betrays Junbao. Ah, wires. I really don't like it when they use them in action movies. I think they look silly and highly unbelievable. I am a firm believer in hand to hand combat. All wires do is increase the spectacle, but I believe that it hinders it, in lieu of augmenting it. This movie is a good story about abusing power and letting greed consume you; however. If you're here to watch a Jet Li film with mind blowing action, you've come to the right place. Despite the usage of wires, some of the fight scenes are truly spectacular. There is some fantastic Tai- Chi in this movie, with Jet Li at his best. For the examples of the fights, check out the fight involving a big stack of logs. Michelle Yeoh kicking some ass, while walking on stilts is pretty bad-ass as well. I have to give credit to some of the rigorous training scenes. A couple of them were really creative. The only other carp about this movie, is that the friendship between Junbao & Chin Bo isn't intense enough. They were friends for 20 years, but I felt they could have been far more intense with it. Junbao (Jet Li) goes through a lengthy shock period, but most of it is done for comedic effect and slapstick. The slapstick is amusing, but it wasn't the proper time for it. The showdown at the end between Junabo & Chin Bo is extremely exciting, but typically one-sided for the most part. Li is solid as usual, delivering in the fight scenes like not many people can. Yeoh is solid as well. This is a pretty entertaining movie, filled with terrific fight scenes. It's so entertaining, that I'm more than willing to give some of the flaws a Mulligan. 7.5/10

bob the moo As children, Junbao and Chin Bo were put together in the monastery to help each other learn. Over they years they became great friends and great fighters to the point where Chin Bo is entered into an internal tournament to see who from all the students will progress. During the fight Chin Bo's opponent cheats, enraging Bo and causing him to beat his opponent with a savagery that is unbefitting a monk. Kicking out for this, Chin Bo and Junbao find themselves out on the street to fend for themselves. They meet a young woman, Siu Lin, and start to help her out but, after thinking about the future, the two friends go their separate ways – with Chin Bo becoming a soldier and Junbao falling in with Siu Lin and a group of rebels.With Hero currently being touted all over the place as the greatest thing ever, I thought I'd just avoid the multiplex hype and view some older Jet Li films, one of which was Twin Warriors, as it is known in the UK. The film starts with an OK plot but then it starts to fall down a bit as the story widens to include entire armies and so on. The reason it falters as it goes is due to the lack of character in the script; the film is about the lead two but, other than both can fight, one is nice, the other a bit rough, we are not given much to get into and I never really was drawn into the passion, the loss and the conflict in their relationship. The film uses some of the humour that made Fong Sai-Yuk (The Legend) so very enjoyable, but it uses it sparingly at the start and then not at all later on. As a story it is neither as involving nor as funny as it could have been and needed to be to work better for me.Of course this is a problem that can be understood when you consider that the director is better known for his fight choreography than anything else. As such he does well to produce some exciting fights that demonstrate how good wire work can be – only once or twice does he hit a bad note (Junbao's bouncing head butt was more silly than exciting). None of the fights really stand out as being one of the greats, they are often too contrived and and are (surprisingly) rather flatly filmed at times; but they are still enjoyable and are certainly a lot more fun than the stuff that Jet Li has been reduced to in his American films in the past few years. Li shows again here why he became a global star – he makes the wirework look natural and he has great charisma combined with a winning smile and the ability to convey more complex emotions. Yeoh was a big draw for me but I didn't feel she was used very well; action-wise she did well but she didn't have a great character and gradually slips into the shadows when the film comes back to focus on the battle between Li and Shi-hou. Shi-hou is OK but he is so simple – an angry man at heart; this could have been a complex character but Shi-lou makes him too easy to dislike and there is no requirement for us to think about him or feel anything at all. Support is good with the most memorable stuff coming from the rebel comic relief but the dubbing leaves a little to be desired. I'm not a snob – I don't need to see the film in the original language but often it helps with the performances. Sometimes dubbing is OK with this but here I didn't think some of it was very good and they messed with the characters by the manner of their delivery – the Emperor was the worst, he was done by some guy giving a very bad Peter Lorre impression.Overall this is an enjoyable film from a martial arts point of view but it really isn't that great. The fights are mostly well done without any of them really being amazing but the story and characters are all done far too simply to really engage and excite. The story had potential to be emotional and driving but without the characters it didn't work so well – if it had I would have been more involved making the action scenes a lot more exciting and dramatic.

treble_head It's not Drunken Master, (not the Legend of Drunken Master, the original, noodge), but what is? It is a well made tale of an ousted Shaolin monk who through hardship and madness, learns the ultimately taoist T'ai Chi Chuan.The thing I love about this film, (and you'd have to be a geek to go with this} but I love the fact that he learns T'ai Chi through his own hardships, not from a sifu (teacher), and the typical sifu or friend who dies is his friend, who, instead of dying, turns evil with power.The entire movie is a great representation of Taosism (yin, yang, good and evil}. I don't agree that Michelle Yeoh (or Michelle Kahn at she time in the film) was not well used. She provided the idea of the easy path, drinking in this case, that is so lacking in gong fu movies. She and he both redeem themselves against the head bad guy (His character name escapes me at the time}, but there is no love interest between themselves. She's tough and troubled, he's tough and troubled and they actually help each other (read: she stops drinking to save him, he learns from her care and she helps cure his madness).By the way, the head bad guy, (again, sorry about the name} was still played brilliantly even in dubbing. My friends and I still say "Hmmmmm" in his fey evil voice when thinking bad thoughts. It can be said it's typical Hong Kong fare... Good guy gets defeated, learns a new style of Gong Fu and defeats the bad guy, but then again, isn't that what Star Wars took 3 films to accomplish?Anyway, my opinion of this film is tainted by the fact that I'm a taoist, but the action is top notch, nobody flies for no reason, all the characters (even the comic relief) are fleshed out. great film. not the greatest, but, it's a hell of a lot better than "Shaolin Drunken Monk" (aka, Plan 9 from the Shaolin Temple) lol.