Style without substance

Rating: 3/10 (3 November 2003)

This seems to be the work of a film maker who has run out of things to say. My companion and I both felt that this was perhaps the emptiest film we had ever seen. We find the hype around this film bemusing. Be prepared to be disappointed - the emperor has no clothes!
Unlike his previous productions, the script is devoid of plot, suspense, wit, character development or any of the qualities that make story-telling on film worthwhile.
Instead we have a series of mindless, violent set pieces and knowing fan references to Asian genre movies. It is not the violence that turned us off - it is too stylised to be objectionable - but the utter lack of any point to the thing. Even the fight scenes themselves were predictable and repetitive, with none of the flair of the great kung-fu directors.
The bard summed it up rather well: "...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."