Shaolin

Philosophical monks and lethal fights don't mix well enough.

Melodrama and mediocre score aside, what this has in abundance is some excellent choreography. Lau is great here and Chan is always entertaining (although his character apparently matters so little, he doesn't even have a name), but I felt he just needed a lot more screen time, he's not even in the first half of the flick.

carries message to certain people

Unsettling. An inconsistent message and storytelling that forgets its way. Though it has its moments, and makes Shaolin Buddhism seem really attractive (until the climax, anyway), there are better films out there in the same vein.

http://gorgview.com/shaolin

Starts decent, but by the end the problems with continuity, editing and acting really show through. Highlight is Jackie Chan's one fight scene, really great! Shame he didn't have more of a role in the film, and also a shame that his character was completely irrelevant to the plot- basically tacked on as an afterthought. Anyway thumbs up for the fight choreography throughout the film, which remains head and shoulders above the fight scenes coming out of the Hollywood studios lately.

The melodramatized accounts are dragging the film down a bit (one may choose to skip through them without missing much). Everything Shaolin is gold. True to it's ancestors (I haven't watched the Jet Li's debut original)

Nice to look at, but laughably stupid. Each predictable, melodramatic moment had me cringing.

"Benny Chan's kung-fu film Shaolin both benefits from and is ultimately defeated by its own epic ambitions." - Andrew Schenker

Awesome story about a very bad guy becoming a good guy and trying to make a difference. Small part played by Jackie Chan was amusing and entertaining. Many great fight scenes and mostly flawless fighting choreography. The story is heavy influenced by Buddhist teachings. Arrogant aggressive men wage wars for personal profit eventually suffer by their choices. Reasonably good story and great fights. I liked the dubbed audio, but there should have been some subtitles to explain the signage.

Jackie Chan and Andy Lau doing their thing. It does stray from one place to another though.

preachy. but the action's cool as hell.

Once in a while you stumble upon a movie in which everything is great and you cannot wait for the next act or scene to unfold. Unfortunately this movie is not it. It is just one garbled mix up of different story lines, ideas and characters where nothing really has focus. The only thing I will remember from this, is Jacky Chan's vegetable fry and noodle fight scenes. Highly original, but hopelessly out of place.