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Movies / In Theaters / Red Cliff
Red Cliff

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Red Cliff (2009)

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Reviews Counted:92

Fresh:81

Rotten:11

Average Rating:7.1/10

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.

Australian Rating: TBC

Runtime: 2 hrs 20 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Australian Theatrical Release:
Jul 23, 2009 Wide

US Box Office: $374,183

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... 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 century China, and the emperor raises a million-man army against two kingdoms that are hopelessly outmatched. This war film stars Tony Leung, the beloved actor best known for LUST, CAUTION and IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. [More]

Starring: Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Chi-Ling Lin

Starring: Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Chi-Ling Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Hu Jun

Director: John Woo

Director: John Woo
Screenwriter: John Woo, Khan Chan, Kuo Zheng, Sheng Heyu
Producer: John Woo, Terence Chang
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

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Reviews for Red Cliff

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

I would have given the original film at least a four-star rating; the cut version is diminished but not entirely ruined. The nuances may have been left on the cutting-room floor but the spectacle just about survives.

Full Review Source: The Australian | comment Comment
07/28/09
David Stratton
David Stratton
The Australian
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Red Cliff marks his return to form with the most expensive Chinese-speaking film ever made.

Full Review Source: Triple j | comment Comment
07/27/09
Martyn Pedler
Martyn Pedler
Triple j
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Like your chinese action? The huge battles, physics defying fight sequences, the sense of history in the making? Then you'll love Red Cliff.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
07/27/09
Giles Hardie
Giles Hardie
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The most beautiful Asian epic since Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar triumph, The Last Emperor, 22 years ago.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) | comment Comment
07/24/09
Des Partridge
Des Partridge
Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A handsome, vigorous, entertaining film that never becomes exhilarating.

Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
07/24/09
Philippa Hawker
Philippa Hawker
The Age (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The decision to release only an ‘international’ cut-down version, combining the two original films and almost halving the running time is a terrible one -- it’s akin to screening half of Lawrence of Arabia.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
07/24/09
David Stratton
David Stratton
At the Movies (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Woo revels in a gritty realism that genuinely imparts both the brutality and creativity of ancient warfare.

Full Review Source: Herald Sun (Australia) | comment Comment
07/22/09
Leigh Paatsch
Leigh Paatsch
Herald Sun (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The mix of real history and imagined events results in filmmaking of high quality, despite the gaps and possible confusion of the foreign story.

Full Review Source: Courier Mail (Australia) | comment Comment
07/22/09
Des Partridge
Des Partridge
Courier Mail (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Woo has a knack for the spectacular, and Red Cliff is certainly something to behold.

Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | comment Comment
07/22/09
Hernán Alcerreca
Hernán Alcerreca
FILMINK (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
07/16/09
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's not top-notch Woo, but it's also not Hollywood so-so Woo.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
12/15/09
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

This is one of the best foreign language films of 2009. Woo demonstrates a storytelling style of swiftness and grandeur that has been compared to the samurai classics of Akira Kurosawa.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Spectrum | comment Comment
12/12/09
Keith Cohen
Keith Cohen
Entertainment Spectrum

A formidable prelude to an epic battle with resplendent effects and action spectacles.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
12/11/09
Maggie Lee
Maggie Lee
Hollywood Reporter

As drama Red Cliff is overwrought. As spectacle, though, John Woo’s latest is the real thing, an old-fashioned cast-of-thousands collision of armies.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
12/11/09
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

It reminded me of a Road Runner cartoon. The battlefield violence is essentially repetitious, but Woo -- the auteur as Wile E. Coyote -- introduces gimmicks ('the tortoise formation'), tricks and variations to keep things interesting.

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
12/11/09
John Beifuss
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

As hard as it tries, Red Cliff just can’t muster the heavily filtered mythmaking of the war films of Steven Spielberg and David Lean. And thank goodness for that.

Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | comment Comment
12/11/09
Justin Strout
Justin Strout
Orlando Weekly

Woo has re-embraced his Chinese roots with brutal commitment.

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
12/10/09
Joe Williams
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Flaws and all, you can’t watch a frame of it without feeling that it has been generations since Hollywood tackled anything on this scale.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
12/10/09
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

One of the most exhilarating action movies of the year.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly | comment Comment
12/09/09
Josh Bell
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly

It’s hard to know what we’re missing from the extended cut, but this Red Cliff feels awfully complete to me.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
12/07/09
Sara Vilkomerson
Sara Vilkomerson
New York Observer
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
all

Latest News for Red Cliff

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 Opens in new window
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 Opens in new window
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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