Popular reviews

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★½ 3

  B LA D E U M B R E L L A S
  B LA D E U M B R E L L A S
  B LA D E U M B R E L L A S

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 1

  Opens as very stylized (and surprisingly funny) royal palace intrigue, complete with multiple layers of scheming, betrayal and decoys before transitioning into full-tilt bloody wuxia. Action isn't quite as big as Hero or as felt as House of the Flying Daggers but Zhang Yimou makes up for it by deploying his usual choreographed pageantry with more gore than ever. There's enough bone-crunching and throat-slitting in the final half hour to nearly render it gross-out horror, especially with skin and blood registering even more in this monochromatic universe. Also features the best umbrella combat of all time. Straight up cackled at the soon-to-be iconic army of spinning Beyblade bros coming over the horizon line.

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  Review by Cole ★★★★ 5

  the thing about this movie is that at one point a dude reveals he's got an umbrella that shoots batarangs and i was like "shit yeah"

  and then like two minutes later he reveals he has an army that has a bunch of umbrellas that shoot batarangs and i was like "goddamn"

  and then like ninety seconds after that everyone flips their umbrella over, sits in it, grabs a second one so that they're cocooned, and then they launch themselves into a city like human fucking beyblades and i was like "oh right zhang yimou is the greatest director of all time"

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★½ 2

  There’s one moment in this movie that was so badass I actually screamed out “FUCK YEAH” so loud I was worried for a second I woke up the baby. Also this summer’s hottest fashion accessory is an umbrella comprised entirely of deadly knives.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★ 1

  Heavy sabre...razorblade umbrella...always you wrestle inside me.

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  Review by CinemaJoe ★★★★ 4

  If American modern action movies tried to look half as good as this, we would be in a much better place.

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★ 3

  This should honestly be in every multiplex, so our fellow ordinary citizens can learn how to win a war entirely through political subterfuge and Trojan horse tactics, as I do each time I see this film

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★

  programmed a late-night screening of this at work tonight and had an incredible turnout and reaction to it. because i was working i didn’t get to watch the whole thing but i did get to catch the bit where the dude gets power-kicked in the gut across the giant wooden yin yang and is gored by a stray splinter sticking out of it which was created by his own bladed umbrella so im logging it anyway. total banger

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  Review by alex todd 🧟‍♂️ ★★★★

  the visuals and action were absolutely outstanding but the story takes a while to become even somewhat interesting

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  Review by Scott Tobias ★★★★ 2

  After all the old-guy's-lost-it talk that greeted The Great Wall—a film I nonetheless found underrated and misunderstood—Zhang drops by with a friendly reminder that he's still better at this sort of thing than anyone. Wasn't prepared for how much of the film would be palace intrigue rather than Hero-style action, but Zhang handles everything with a clarity and fluidity that few directors could master. Kills me, in retrospect, that we didn't do a Next Picture Show pairing of this and Kagemusha, two grand-scale historical dramas about doubles.

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★

  Notwithstanding Zhang's typically convoluted politics - the king of Pei is actively vouching for peace between the two kingdoms, lol - this is the rare return to form that's actually a return to form, and even though one can argue its as impersonal as his last batch of pictures it also returns to a set of long held preoccupations - that of combat itself as art, and the relationship between that, calligraphy and music. But it's frankly also a pleasure because of its genuine classical chops - Zhang knowing how to make a movie should be a surprise to no-one, but its a nice reminder of how well classical structuring works within narrative as opposed to social realism: each character…

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  Review by Fam Squad Yeet ★★★★ 1

  A visual masterpiece that’s set back by a shaky script. The color pallete, set design, costumes, and the use of rain is so gorgeous. 

  The story starts off being great but gradually becomes convoluted for no reason. The story takes too many unearned turns. I feel like it should have been longer to fully explore each character and theme.