http://www.mininova.org/tor/2917730

http://www.mininova.org/tor/2917734

John Woo, Chinese director responsible for, among others, Face Off, this time focuses on Chinese History to create this saga of two long parts that form 4 hours of an epic historical movie at the times of the Han dynasty. This is the most expensive piece made ever in Asia and you can tell already from minute one. Armies of extras, outstanding effects, well chosen script, and beautiful stars.

At first I could help myself from thinking about the seventies awesome TV series named The Water Margin, while seeing the wardrobe, the weapons, their hairdos, etc,.. This is the story of two warlords, at the sunset of the Han dynasty,that rebelled against the dictator emperor and allied to confrontation the last in the mother of all battles.

I see how the film, through the non stopping meaty action, shows to “westerners” how the Chinese culture preceded ours by hundreds of years in the invention of soccer (= Cuju), gunpowder, the use of astrology in the battle field and others. For those of you who look for a well made medieval war action film, with the right amount of blood flowing from the bodies after a blow, the right measure of martial arts, combined with great photography and all in Chinese subtitled sound, this is it.

A perfect collage of esthetically perfect  moving pictures from all over the globe, with no script, just observe: religious rituals, urban activity, progress, tribes, environment,…Among the slow and fast motion pics, this doc will take you to far Asia from Burma, India, Cambodia and Laos, Japan and China. A masterminded series of eagle’s eye cameras, others static long hours of waiting in a trypod to gather enough material to nurture the expected effect of people in a metropolis behaving like ants. This piece of art has as much of the experimental as of the mystical opening, with its astonishing in beauty filmed material, whatever questions you might come up with. All and all a fact is conveyed here: no need for noises as scripts for they will just destroy so much beauty meant to be admire only by looking.

The latest action from Steven Seagal. This mess-&-crush-my-bones-Steven! one is about the russian mafia. Steven happens to be a pajalshta gangster named Ruslan, who served his time at one of the russians gulags, and created a known name around russian mafiosi. This time, again, our star is provoked by getting his ex wife assesinated and revenge is served. Nevertheless be prepare to face an old Steven, fat, hair designed but to be fair, the same good old aikido movements and above all the moment we all wait for at his movies: the sweet noise of a healthy arm breaking by the master’s force. Score: 4.5