Ronny Yu's Huo Yuan Jia (aka Fearless) (2.5/4 stars)

I saw this film after some of the other that follow, but I'm going for a series of Academy Awards nominees so I'll put this one up first. You're going to have to wait a bit for my take on Brokeback Mountain. :)



This is reputedly going to be Jet Li's final film.

Strange that he decided to go with a project headed by a guy who directed the hits "Bride of Chucky" and "Freddy vs. Jason".

Regardless, this is as always Li's film. It's not as pretty as Ying Xiong, or Hero to English-speaking audiences. It's also not as well-directed. However, the energy that Li puts into his scenes show little decline from his landmark Once Upon a Time in China series. Wushu is a martial art that's fun to watch, and combined with the wire-fu tricks that have now become standard even in Hollywood, Huo Yuan Jia is entertaining for the length of its running time.

Scuttlebutt has it that the original director's cut was 2.5 hours, and they whittled it down to 100 minutes for non-Chinese audiences who apparently can't tolerate that much "kung fu" in one sitting. It's laughable if true, considering that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon clocked in just over 2 hours.

Bottom Line: It's Jet Li, and it's wushu in what's billed as his final outing. Catch it just for old times' sake.