This is one of my favorite movies, period. It handles the evolution of a man from a brutal, uncaring fighter through the heights of success, to complete and shattering loss where he discovers what is truly important beyond himself. I could watch this over and over: thrilling action sequences, along with the story of a man's growth to true maturity, compassion and valor. This has it all! Great acting, visually stunning, worthwhile plot. Highest recommendation if you enjoy martial arts and foreign movies.

Chinese compounded traditional martial arts is a fantastic and rather historic form of fighting, more commonly known as Wushu. This is a quite phenomenal mix of literally hundreds of forms and functional techniques in self defense. It of course is exceptionally popular in Asian cinema, and there is always that real sense of watching something unbelievably beautiful that has been passed down from generation to generation.'Shaolin' brings much of the same fighting styles from previous martial arts films of the last decade. It's hard to compare it to anything I have seen in recent years. I found the movie to be quite enjoyable, if a rather typical ride for most fans of Chinese Cinema. There is the typical overuse of wired stunts, which gives that somewhat graceful 'float' effect on their jumps and movements. When it's just left to the choreography of Jackie Chan and Andy Lao it is actually quite breathtaking to watch the seemingly effortless way they move their bodies in a whirlwind of fists and kicks.The story line is a rather serious topic for most films that come out of most successful communist country in the world. Most movies that come out of this part of the world are written, and re-written as to represent history in such a way that the government would approve of. This usually leads into a lot of fictionalization, just like any Hollywood drama. For example they leave out a lot of the history related to how many Shaolin Temples were destroyed over and over again in China's history, from the 16th century to even more modern times when rural warlords/generals set fire to monasteries throughout the country. The religious persecution during the communist cultural revolution still affects what can and cannot be shown in Chinese cinema, especially with religious themed films.Anyways, it is a beautiful movie to watch, some excellent dramatic moments through the whole thing, and very well acted. Most definitely one of my favorite movies out of China in the last decade.7/10

In the mid-30s China has broken up into warring factions of warlords attempting to carve out power and influence between themselves. Amongst them Hou Chieh (Andy Lau), powerful and remorseless, aiming to achieve domination even at the expense of his blood brothers death. He disregards not only loyalties for his quest for power, but also tradition - openly ridiculing the Shaolin Temple in the opening sequence of the movie. His only deeper affection is directed towards his wife (Bingbing Fan) and sole child. However, such immorality rarely remains unpunished, as karma is a dog and is intent on biting back, when his second in command Tsao Man (Nicholas Tse) betrays Hou, thus causing the death of his daughter. Initially conquered by anger Hou plans revenge, but soon finds sanctuary in the Shaolin Temple, finding a friend and comfort in the local cook Wudao (Jackie Chan). Slowly he accepts his fate and finds peace within himself. Tsao Man however does not intend to leave his former comrade of arms alive...Another blockbuster extravaganza from China with great settings, beautiful cinematography and some well researched, brilliantly crafted period reconstruction. However under Benny Chan's direction, visibly placing style and swashbuckling melodrama over substance, even the great Andy Lau delivers a sobbing and disappointing performance. Only Jackie Chan seems somewhat comfortable in his goofish guise, as the somewhat aloof super-cook. This stylistic over-reliance on soapish dramaturgy lacks the same required restraint showed by directors such as Ang Lee, Xiaogang Feng or even John Woo, thus making the effort at times a cringe-worthy lesson in bad filmmaking. The best moments come during fight sequences, but even here a severe overuse of slow-motion in order to 'imbue' the tragedy or drama just tingles all the wrong receptors. Instead of dramatic the multitude of such scenes make the movie a yawn-inducing watch, which could obviously use drastic editing to cut down run time with no harm to story or substance.

In SHAOLIN, a fantastic first act with stunning action sequences and compelling drama is drastically offset by an uneven remainder of the film in which cliché plot elements and bad direction painfully take over. Director Benny Chan's story of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple is impressive to watch and easy to appreciate from every technical standpoint, but the narrative falters as it progresses, resulting in muddled and inconsistent pacing - a pity given the big budget and ambitious designs. A great group of performers along with excellent action choreography are complemented by vast production sets and camera-work to create a truly epic feel. An exciting carriage chase and sweeping coverage of Shaolin monks training highlight the superb visual spectacle. While Andy Lau delivers a fine all-around performance as a warlord-turned-monk (a character with a strong and emotional story arc), his costars suffer from what seems like hastily-written characters despite also providing bravura acting. For instance, Nicholas Tse's villainous General Tsao Man becomes much too cartoony with his emo-hairstyle, evil smirks, and stilted dialogue, while Jackie Chan's moments become as forced as Wu Jing is underused. The script sacrifices its focus on narrative strength at times for cliché segments of over-sentimentality, which appear merely to provide stirring nationalism that has become much to prevalent in contemporary Chinese cinema - a crippling and extremely unfortunate hindrance to not only this film but the entire industry itself. Nevertheless, SHAOLIN delivers the goods in terms of action and scope; simply an entertaining film that sadly could have been so much more.