Warlords

I told you earlier that the trailer for John Woo's "Red Cliff" brings out the man in you. Well now you can get it on pay-per-view advanced screening (a little pricey at 9.99).
I was feeling a bit testosterone-y yesterday and I rented it. I'm now feeling a little punch drunk at the sheer number of dead Chinese Warriors all bleeding profusely from the pixels of my new flatscreen. The battle sequences are "Gladiator" to the 3rd power. Woo was always been a great action director and while this film doesn't break much new ground there's enough whirling, flying, slicing and spinning martial arts moves to give a fan of the genre a fix that will last a good long while.
But this is also a film about the strategy of warfare as much as it is about the actual fighting. It's about wind and women and spying and germ warfare and ancient battle formations. Fun. Fun. Fun. Now I'm not myself an expert in the field of Chinese Battle epics (my man with his thumb on the pulse of Asian cinema has yet to see it) so I may be off base but this seems to me to be about as good as a Chinese Feudal War Epic gets. You should see it.
"Red Cliff" is not in theatrical release yet so pay-per-view is currently your only option, but I'm told that it will soon be coming to an Art House near you. If you're a huge fan of the genre, you may want to wait for the big screen option. That would be an awesome sight.