Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Kevin Lea Davies Chinese compounded traditional martial arts is a fantastic and rather historic form of fighting, more commonly known as Wushu. This is a quite phenomenal mix of literally hundreds of forms and functional techniques in self defense. It of course is exceptionally popular in Asian cinema, and there is always that real sense of watching something unbelievably beautiful that has been passed down from generation to generation.'Shaolin' brings much of the same fighting styles from previous martial arts films of the last decade. It's hard to compare it to anything I have seen in recent years. I found the movie to be quite enjoyable, if a rather typical ride for most fans of Chinese Cinema. There is the typical overuse of wired stunts, which gives that somewhat graceful 'float' effect on their jumps and movements. When it's just left to the choreography of Jackie Chan and Andy Lao it is actually quite breathtaking to watch the seemingly effortless way they move their bodies in a whirlwind of fists and kicks.The story line is a rather serious topic for most films that come out of most successful communist country in the world. Most movies that come out of this part of the world are written, and re-written as to represent history in such a way that the government would approve of. This usually leads into a lot of fictionalization, just like any Hollywood drama. For example they leave out a lot of the history related to how many Shaolin Temples were destroyed over and over again in China's history, from the 16th century to even more modern times when rural warlords/generals set fire to monasteries throughout the country. The religious persecution during the communist cultural revolution still affects what can and cannot be shown in Chinese cinema, especially with religious themed films.Anyways, it is a beautiful movie to watch, some excellent dramatic moments through the whole thing, and very well acted. Most definitely one of my favorite movies out of China in the last decade.7/10

dworldeater Shaolin is an action packed, dramatic epic in the same vein as the Tom Cruise vehicle The Last Samurai. It also takes place on around the same time period, but in a time of turmoil in China where warlords fought over the land much at the expense of the masses. Warlords, which Andy Lau also appears in is great as well and I highly recommend that movie also. Anyhow, Andy Lau gives an outstanding performance here as Hou Jie. Hou Jie is a ruthless warlord general. His unscrupulous actions catch up with him that result in him taking refuge in a Shaolin temple he once disrespected. His second in command (played by Nicholas Tse) picks up where Hou Jie left off, exceeding his predecessor in immorality and cruelty. The legendary Jackie Chan appears as a lighthearted support role as cook for the Shaolin monks. This tale of redemption is a very well crafted film by HK veteran director Benny Chan. The film looks beautiful and is very well performed, shot and directed. Jet Li's preferred fight choreographer Corey Yuen set up the action, which of course is awesome and there are large helpings of it as well. Shaolin should please most action fans and has the potential to win over viewers who normally stay away from this sort of stuff, as this is very well made and an excellent dramatic film in its own right.

p-stepien In the mid-30s China has broken up into warring factions of warlords attempting to carve out power and influence between themselves. Amongst them Hou Chieh (Andy Lau), powerful and remorseless, aiming to achieve domination even at the expense of his blood brothers death. He disregards not only loyalties for his quest for power, but also tradition - openly ridiculing the Shaolin Temple in the opening sequence of the movie. His only deeper affection is directed towards his wife (Bingbing Fan) and sole child. However, such immorality rarely remains unpunished, as karma is a dog and is intent on biting back, when his second in command Tsao Man (Nicholas Tse) betrays Hou, thus causing the death of his daughter. Initially conquered by anger Hou plans revenge, but soon finds sanctuary in the Shaolin Temple, finding a friend and comfort in the local cook Wudao (Jackie Chan). Slowly he accepts his fate and finds peace within himself. Tsao Man however does not intend to leave his former comrade of arms alive...Another blockbuster extravaganza from China with great settings, beautiful cinematography and some well researched, brilliantly crafted period reconstruction. However under Benny Chan's direction, visibly placing style and swashbuckling melodrama over substance, even the great Andy Lau delivers a sobbing and disappointing performance. Only Jackie Chan seems somewhat comfortable in his goofish guise, as the somewhat aloof super-cook. This stylistic over-reliance on soapish dramaturgy lacks the same required restraint showed by directors such as Ang Lee, Xiaogang Feng or even John Woo, thus making the effort at times a cringe-worthy lesson in bad filmmaking. The best moments come during fight sequences, but even here a severe overuse of slow-motion in order to 'imbue' the tragedy or drama just tingles all the wrong receptors. Instead of dramatic the multitude of such scenes make the movie a yawn-inducing watch, which could obviously use drastic editing to cut down run time with no harm to story or substance.

craemac The story line is really good and presented very well. The actors make the movie believable and entertaining: Five Stars to the cast. I am not sure of the historical context but it appears to have been based loosely on actual events...need to do some research. Violence was, in my opinion excessive...and was not needed to the degree presented to get the story across. While the movies disclaimers state that no animals were injured during filming, I have severe doubts of that claim. There are three scenes in which horses are tripped - one down a flight of stairs - and having raised horses, I know there is no way the animals could have survived those falls uninjured. Rating a 4 because of the violence.