Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, Wonderful, and Unusual
Review: Let's face facts, if you're here to see a Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan movie with high speed martial arts, then you are in for a disappointment. This is nothing like that at all, and what is left is breathtaking and beautiful to behold. Trying to relate this movie to the American Culture will leave you empty inside, especially with the ending. Trying to understand a different culture, one from at least a hundred years ago, will leave you with something entirely different. America's desire for a happy ending has left us spoiled, and this movie offers us something unusual that many do not want to accept, that in the end, it's not all roses and honey, and the ending is not always happy. One persons life may alter so many others, as the young girls life did here. Kudos to Ang Lee for bringing back a style and artform that many here in America have never seen, and should see more of.
Rating: 
Summary: Am I missing something?
Review: I sat and watched this film in utter disgust. After all the hype, after all the critics raving on and on about it, after a few of my friends said "you gotta see it", I can't help but feel like I'm missing something. The plot was boring, the characters seemed shallow, and what's with all the flying? The only bright spots were the terrific sword fights, but then they'd inevitably start flying again which made me sigh in agony. The end of the movie (which I won't get into detail on) left me thinking that it was just an easy out. I sat there wondering why I put myself through such an awful movie and where else could I have spent the money on.
Rating: 
Summary: Stupid, yet beautiful
Review: This, for whatever reason, is one of the most loved films of 2000. It has two love stories, and a tale of revenge. To top it off, there's a girl who fancies herself a great warrior, not unjustifiably so. Any one of these elements by itself would make for a good film. However, adding them all (Plus those I have forgotten) just makes for a convoluted one. They shove all of this information at me, and because there is so much, I don't particularly care about any of it. Perhaps a re-edit of the film would have been better. For one thing, I hate flashbacks. I wasn't even aware that the flashback scene in question even *was* a flashback until it ended. The only real reason for it was to add the bandit character. The film would have been better without him. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't bad, but merely unnecessary. Without him, we could have concentrated far more on the relationship between Michele Yeoh & Chow Yung Fat thereby making the ending sequence far better. Now to be fair, as almost everybody has pointed out, the fight sequences were simply amazing. From a western standpoint, anyway. The film isn't really out of the ordinary back in China. In fact, my understanding is that it bombed there on its first release. The reason it was released here was for the fact that it had at least two lead actors that are known in this country.
This is a run-of-the-mill asian film. If you really want to sing the praises of one, then wait for a good one. In the mean time, let's hope that the success of this one opens the door for some good ones.
Rating: 
Summary: No Explosions, But Still A Lot Of Fun
Review: I freely admit that my taste in movies hasn't changed much since I was in high school. My signature question whenever my friends call me up and want to see a movie is 'Does it have any explosions in it?' Nevertheless, I found CTHD a good use of my money. Good enough to go out a few months later and buy the DVD, which I actually even watched from beginning to end last week. Sword fu. Horse fu. Blowpipe fu. Flail fu. Ceramic-tile-off- the-roof-fu. Restaurant destruction fu. Two beautiful women. Long periods of ordinarily yawn-inducing character/plot development that are so well-acted and beautifully photographed you won't really care, even if you're still nineteen at heart. You may even find you enjoy it a little, although you'll never admit it to anyone. Four and a half stars.
Rating:
Summary: Don't see what all the fuss is about
Review: I watched this movie on PPV not the DVD. The presentation was digital however. I was really looking forward to this film because of all the good things that I've heard about it. If you haven't seen it, don't buy the DVD. Rent it or see it on cable before you decide. This movie was so obviously unbelievable. It seemed like some of the special effects were just put in gratuitously, they were way off base from the advancing of the plot, what little plot there was.
Rating:
Summary: Simply One of the Greatest Martial Arts Movies of All Time
Review: What can you say? Classic story. Awesome cinematography. Humor. Fight scenes that make incredible use of the now-overused wire stunts. A "movie" movie, that happens to feature martial arts, as opposed to "movie as an excuse to feature martial arts stunts." Michelle Yeow is great, as is Chow Yun Fat, but the real find here is Ziyi Zhang, whom you can now seen in Rush Hour II. She is the centerpiece of the movie, Yeow is its heart and Chow Yun Fat is its voice of reason. They really don't make movies like this anymore. Great on DVD...a must-have.
Rating:
Summary: Great action and FX but what's all the hype about?
Review: Now I'm a martial arts fan from before Bruce Lee, but this movie just didn't do it for me. I mean really folks, when's the last time you saw someone walk up a bamboo shoot? Even the FX's were implausible, especially the "flying" scenes. Plot was way too predictable. I loved the fight sequences that were on the ground!Really good choreography in those! Is the hype because the Asian market produced a martial arts film that is not cartoon-like?
Rating:
Summary: Overblown hype
Review: I've watched the movie and while the fight scenes, the scenery, and the characterizations are truly wonderful, the main part of the film (the plot) leaves one in the dust with disappointment. When the movie is done, you are left with the impression that one young brat is responsible for the pain, suffering, and death of countless good people. Even the ending - when she supposedly finds her happiness - leaves her lover in the lurch ... after he sacrificed everything he had for her. It was a very disappointing film given the incredible amount of hype around it at the time of the theatrical release and the release of the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth
Review: If you like Amercian action this is where it is at. This movie takes the ideas (myths and martial arts) of the Asian world and wraps them up into action sequences that rivals that of The Matrix. Though this movie is not thought of as highly in Asian countries because of conficts of cultural and mythical value, within the U.S. it's sheer artfullness is enough to get past such views (when in fact the American public has no idea the basis of a crouching tiger or hidden tragon). This movie is full of amazing actions shots though a director's eye that is none less than that of a genious. This is one of the most artfully made movies ever put on the big screen, and this remains true because it doesn't base it's flair on the action alone, but on a musical score that is not only beautiful but that compliments every movement of every actor. The acting itself is almost emotionless at times, rendering parts of the movie less dynamic and at few times poor, but that can only be expected from a country who gives no training or good money to their actors. For americans this won't matter because of the translational barrier of the two languages. even with the caption you don't get a true sense of converstion, just bits of text one after another. i suggest watching it with the original language and no captions...this gives you the true effect the director wanted with the artfullness of a beautiful language adding an almost second score of music throughout the movie. OVERALL: this is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: Gladiator definitely deserved best picture
Review: I went into this movie expecting a lot, and it didn't quite deliver. The plot of the story is convoluted and doesn't stand so well on its own-- the script was adapted from a Chinese novel in the middle of a series. I would like to know the rest of the story (I hear they're making a prequal or something), because in this movie there are continual references to things and people and places that have no apparent bearing on the plot. Truthfully, I'm not really sure there was a plot. The dialogue isn't that great-- and you can't blame subtitles, because the script was originally written in English and then translated into Chinese. Last of all, I didn't really care about any of the characters, especially the young heroine. I actually disliked her. And I thought the whole movie was kind of long, and kind of boring.
The acting and special effects and visuals and music were all stunning. So I give it three stars.
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