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Reviews Counted:77
Fresh:66
Rotten:11
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Featuring some impressively grand battlefield action, John Woo returns to Asia and returns to form in the process for this lavish and slick historical epic.
Theatrical Release:Nov 18, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: After directing stylish action films such as THE KILLERS and FACE-OFF, director John Woo turns to Chinese history for inspiration with RED CLIFF. The Han Dynasty is facing its death in third... [More]
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The script is leaden but the action speaks volumes as Woo delivers an efficient spectacle of naval battles, slow-motion combat, death-defying stunt work, daredevil espionage, noble deeds, self-sacrifice and more plotting than a Labour Cabinet meeting.
The biggest film of the year opens this week, though you may be forgiven if you haven't heard about it, as it has committed the unpardonable sin of being in Chinese.
Top CriticAny war picture in which the heroine stalls the villain with a quiet, painstaking tea ceremony until the wind shifts direction and the good guys can firebomb the bad guys into oblivion is too ineffably Zen not to love.
Top CriticOverlong but ambitious, Woo proves he's as good at tactical maneuvers as he is at close-quarters combat.
The characters function less as flesh-and-blood figures than obtuse archetypes. They look and act as if they know they belong in an epic.
With battle scenes to rival those of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, this is a beautiful piece of cinematography.
Woo has created a resounding epic, blending a distinctly Chinese ethos with a Hollywood sense of scale.
Red Cliff is extravagant and expensive, but at least all the money has gone on screen.
John Woo returns to China to make a film he has been burning to make, an adaptation from the much read book, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written in about the 14th century; many years after the events depicted, but then these events are as important in
... a triumph [that] demands to be seen on the biggest possible screen.
The battle choreography is superb, and Woo's Peckinpah-style slo-mo violence ensures that every lopping and skewering gets our full attention. The film could do with some lopping itself – at least half an hour – but the effect is dizzyingly grand.
A sensationally entertaining, visually stunning epic filled with enough thrilling and invigorating action sequences to compensate for its dull, less captivating dramatic scenes.
Many people see Red Cliff as Hong Kong actioneer John Woo's return to form. I'm not one of them. John Woo has never once made a film I've liked. Until now.
A user-friendly spectacle of warriors and weapons, Red Cliff is a majestic motion picture that returns Woo to the sort of whirlwind screen restlessness he built his legendary name upon.
I loved watching Red Cliff from a purely technical level but never cared about it on a human one.
I left the movie thinking, "Wow, those were some really good formations those soldiers invented. Who were they again, anyway?"
A bloodthirsty costume epic directed for maximum gruesomeness.
John Woo fulfills on "Red Cliff's" reputation as the most expensive Chinese-language film ever made with a mesmerizing war epic that concentrates on ancient techniques of war strategy as played out on a grand stage.
The compelling emotion that marks the best Woo movies is AWOL. The pacing is choppy, with most of the human moments lopped off. Is the Han emperor the good guy? Or should we cheer the rebellious opposition warlords? And what the heck is a viceroy?
Warring armies clash in third-century China. Epic adventure marks a return to form for director John Woo.
November 19, 2009:
Critics Consensus: New Moon Wanes
This week at the movies, we've got hot teen vampires (The Twilight Saga: New Moon, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson); a football family (The Blind Side, starring... More...
October 16, 2009:
John Woo Prepares to Unleash Flying Tigers 
His "Red Cliff" is finally reaching American theaters next month, but John Woo is already on to his next project, a war drama to be titled "Flying Tigers." More...
October 04, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
May 19, 2009:
Sydney Film Festival Gets Wooed
Hong Kong action maestro John Woo will appear at this year's Sydney Film Festival to present his latest epic, Red Cliff, which has its Australian premiere on June 9. The... More...
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