boring movie, inexplicable success

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2001)

I'm not British, but when I left the theater the phrase that came
irresistibly to mind was: "what an old load of codswallop!" Ten
minutes of portentous, wit-free dialogue about nothing particularly
real is followed by several minutes of choreographed imitation
fighting, likewise unreal; then again leaden dialogue, and again
cartoon fighting, over and over until at long last the thing limps to
an unconvincing conclusion. I've admired Ang Lee's films for their
close examination of character; I had thought this would combine
the usual martial arts nonsense with a real story about believable
people. Nothing of the kind, alas--just a very expensive video
game. Bits of it were pretty, as a Nature special on PBS is pretty,
but actors swooping around in the trees are not inherently any
more interesting than macaws doing likewise, and the macaws
have better motivation. This movie was as dumb, and as wildly
overrated, as "Gladiator," and that's saying a lot.