It's a bit of a shame that the 3D booms of the 1950s and 1980s didn't spread particularly evenly around the world, especially to places like Hong Kong and Taiwan; by the time 3D became a regular component of action-movie releases another 30 years later, martial-arts cinema wasn't quite what it once was. In between, a few people decided to play with 3D kung fu in 1977. It didn't stick, for one reason or another, but that doesn't mean there's…

Cliff Walkers feels a bit like a TV series that goes on too long, needing to switch in new cast members, give audience favorites in small roles more to do, and kind of losing the main plot, all in just over two hours. That it's not actually stretched over two years keeps it from treacly being a drag, at least.

And if filmmaker Zhang Yimou gets caught up in details and side tracks, it's st least to a purpose, a…

Movies like The Booksellers don't exactly backfire when, halfway through, certain viewers find that this film meant to celebrate a rare and vanishing breed of person is instead providing examples of just how that breed rubs them the wrong way. A documentary doesn't necessarily need to be convincing to be worthy, but at times there is enough self-satisfaction evident in this one to visibly crowd out the more dynamic stories that filmmaker D.W. Young could be telling.

You almost have…