Review of Red Cliff (2008) by Dylan B — 05 Dec 2009

If John Woo directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, it might have looked something like this. A tight, very well directed war epic about the end of the Han Dynasty in 208 A.D. - with amazing fight choreography and incredibly stylized battle sequences, it's no wonder Red Cliff was more successful than The Dark Knight last year when originally released in China.

With many references to The Art Of War, what makes this such an interesting movie is that it plays out like a game of chess, each opponent attempting to remain three moves ahead of their enemy - from using dated fighting techniques to predicting weather patterns, the real battle is fought between two masterminds attempting to outsmart the other.

John Woo brings his signature style to this war epic and directs it like no other - though a couple of the establishing shots are a bit jittery, most of the fight scenes involve no CGI and rely solely on the use of extras which gives the whole film an epic quality that many films of this genre lose at the hand of computer technology.

The film is only in limited release right now, but I would definitely suggest you rent this when it comes out on DVD.