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Reviews Counted:75
Fresh:64
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.
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.
Top CriticRed Cliff marks his return to form with the most expensive Chinese-speaking film ever made.
Top CriticLike your chinese action? The huge battles, physics defying fight sequences, the sense of history in the making? Then you'll love Red Cliff.
Top CriticThe most beautiful Asian epic since Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar triumph, The Last Emperor, 22 years ago.
Top CriticA handsome, vigorous, entertaining film that never becomes exhilarating.
Top CriticThe 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.
Top CriticWoo revels in a gritty realism that genuinely imparts both the brutality and creativity of ancient warfare.
Top CriticThe mix of real history and imagined events results in filmmaking of high quality, despite the gaps and possible confusion of the foreign story.
Top CriticWoo has a knack for the spectacular, and Red Cliff is certainly something to behold.
Top CriticJohn 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
Top CriticMany 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.
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?"
Not a bad consolation prize, but not the complex, multilayered drama that made Red Cliff a hit in Asia.
From landscape shots that have the serene beauty of a Han Dynasty watercolor, to its dramatic naval engagements and thundering cavalry charges, this is magnificent filmmaking, and a magnificent film.
Woo doesn't have Yimou's natural feel for the courtly culture, or, perhaps, his sweeping way with this type of story. But his hand is sure and his eye, as ever, finds beauty in everything, even death.
Returning to his roots after a stint in Hollywood, Woo has made the most expensive film in mainland Chinese history, a pleasantly traditional picture that marks a new direction for one of the world's premier action maestros.
Top CriticThe 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?
It's almost 2 1/2 hours, and too much is corny, cramped, and vague.
The cuts may be appalling to those who've seen the original, but I'm not one of them, and I think this version is pretty solid.
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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