There are fewer things more fun than going into a movie with middling expectations and coming out with your skull shattered.
That's how it was for me last night at New York's Asia Society screening of John Woo's Red Cliff.
The "international cut" of the most expensive movie in Chinese history is 2.5 hours - half of its running time for its native speakers. It completely works as its own film (albeit a tiny bit confusing at times) and has me psyched for the inevitable Blu-ray of the full five hours. It is, in every sense of the word, epic.
I went out thinking "here comes another Crouching Tiger," I exited realizing I had just seen the Chinese Patton. It is terrific.
