Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

67 3 Idiots
47 44 Inch Chest
82 Ajami
71 American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
73 Amreeka
75 Art of the Steal, The
43 Barefoot to Timbuktu
19 Bitch Slap
49 Blood Done Sign My Name
xx Bluebeard
24 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76 Broken Embraces
52 Celine: Through the Eyes of the World
67 Children of Invention
53 Chloe
68 City Island
64 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
84 Cove, The
83 Crazy Heart
21 Crazy on the Outside
51 Creation
xx Daddy Long Legs
81 Damned United, The
57 Defendor
61 Delta
68 Departures
64 District 13: Ultimatum
72 Easier with Practice
xx Eclipse, The
85 Education, An
61 Exploding Girl, The
70 Eyes Wide Open
24 Falling Awake
81 Fish Tank
56 For My Father
52 Formosa Betrayed
xx From Mexico with Love
43 Frozen
xx Ghost Town
77 Ghost Writer, The
69 Girl on the Train, The
75 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The
47 Good Guy, The
76 Greenberg
35 Happy Tears
68 Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
20 Harlem Aria
76 IMAX: Hubble 3D
11 Killing Jar, The
52 Killing Kasztner
xx Kimjongilia
41 Last New Yorker, The
76 Last Station, The
47 Little Traitor, The
51 Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
71 Lourdes
73 Me and Orson Welles
77 Messenger, The
79 Mid-August Lunch
57 Missing Person, The
76 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
80 Mother
50 My Name is Khan
85 Neil Young Trunk Show
49 Nine
67 North Face
64 October Country
67 Off and Running
52 Paranoids, The
40 Phyllis and Harold
49 Pop Star on Ice
49 Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
74 Prodigal Sons
xx Promised Lands (Re-release)
90 Prophet, A
76 Red Riding Trilogy, The
65 Runaways, The
32 Saint John of Las Vegas
83 Secret of Kells, The
69 September Issue, The
36 Serious Moonlight
57 Severe Clear
63 Shinjuku Incident, The
35 Shutterbug
77 Single Man, A
76 Still Bill
34 Stolen
xx Suicide Girls Must Die!
52 Tales from the Script
74 Terribly Happy
74 That Evening Sun
47 To Die for Tano
19 To Save a Life
63 Toe to Toe
69 Town Called Panic, A
54 Until the Light Takes Us
60 Videocracy
84 Vincere
66 Waiting for Armageddon
45 White on Rice
82 White Ribbon
xx White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, The
43 Women in Trouble
xx Word is Out
64 Yellow Handkerchief, The
64 Young Victoria, The

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Red Cliff

EMAILPRINTMagnet Releasing (Magnolia Pictures)

Red Cliff reviews
73
7.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Adventure  |  Drama  |  War

Written by: Terence Chang
John Woo
Khan Chan
Kuo Cheng, Sheng Heyu

Directed by: John Woo

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 18, 2009
DVD: March 23, 2010

Running Time: 148 minutes, Color

Origin: China

Language(s): Mandarin

Summary

RATING: R for sequences of epic warfare

Starring Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chang Chen, Zhao Wei, and Hu Jun

Red Cliff opens as power hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao seeks permission from the Han dynasty Emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush the two troublesome warlords who stand in his way, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. As the expedition gets underway, Cao Cao's troops rain destruction on Liu Bei's army, forcing him into retreat. Liu Bei's military strategist Zhuge Liang knows that the rebels’ only hope for survival is to form an alliance with rival warlord Sun Quan, and reaches out to Sun Quan’s trusted advisor, war hero Zhou Yu. Vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s brutal, fast-approaching army, the warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign – unrivaled in history – that changes the face of China forever. A massive hit in Asia and the most expensive Asian film production of all time, Red Cliff is a breathtaking war epic that marks the triumphant return of John Woo. (Magnolia Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

Anyone who enjoys stylized hyper-violence should be enthralled by this long, sweeping, murderously vivid dramatization of ancient Chinese warfare, circa A.D. 208.

Read Full Review >
90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The immensity encompasses such variety, subtlety and intimacy that you may find yourself yearning for more.

Read Full Review >
88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

This is magnificent filmmaking, and a magnificent film.

Read Full Review >
88

Washington Post John Anderson

Red Cliff is a dichotomous beast: The computer-generated imagery that makes so much of it possible is served up in heaping, state-of-the-art portions, but the results occasionally border on the cartoonish. At the same time, Red Cliff is a classic tale that gets a classicist's treatment.

Read Full Review >
83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Woo's hand is sure and his eye, as ever, finds beauty in everything, even death.

Read Full Review >
83

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The spectacular battle scenes are the engorged heart of the delirious adventure. But Woo also gets maximum romantic value from Tony Leung as a war hero married to Chiling Lin as the tea-pouring beauty.

Read Full Review >
80

Empire Ian Nathan

Camp, over-the-top and entirely unbelievable: in short, the best thing John Woo has made in years.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Derek Elley

Balances character, grit, spectacle and visceral action in a meaty, dramatically satisfying pie that delivers on the hype and will surprise many who felt the Hong Kong helmer progressively lost his mojo during his long years stateside.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Red Cliff exudes a physical grandiosity that few movies of the past 20 years have attempted--no matter that Woo, even at his best, is still more at ease with down-and-dirty action than epic pageantry.

Read Full Review >
80

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's a movie on the Hollywood scale that has so much of the Asian spirit. It has drawn the Asian audience back to the movie theater.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

A scrumptious war movie.

Read Full Review >
75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

As expected, it has gaping holes where back stories used to be. Still, it's a historical war movie with impressive sweep, strong characterizations and the kind of idiosyncratic flourishes that made Woo such an irresistible storyteller.

Read Full Review >
75

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

We are reminded: War is hell. But at their best, war movies can be cool and beautiful.

Read Full Review >
70

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Any war picture in which the heroine stalls the villain with a quiet, painstaking tea ceremony until the wind shifts direction and the good guys can firebomb the bad guys into oblivion is too ineffably Zen not to love.

Read Full Review >
70

The Hollywood Reporter Maggie Lee

A prelude that provides the beams and columns for the narrative framework, but with a few decisive and spot-on action spectacles, it sufficiently kindles expectations for the climactic clash in Part 2.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Mike Hale

While handsome and intelligent and perfectly easy to sit through, never really approaches the visceral tug of Mr. Woo’s Hong Kong hits.

Read Full Review >
70

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Returning to his roots after a stint in Hollywood, Woo has made the most expensive film in mainland Chinese history, a pleasantly traditional picture that marks a new direction for one of the world's premier action maestros.

Read Full Review >
67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The film is both traditional and modern: austere in its engagement with history, and insistent in its showy action beats.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

You may have the biggest flat-screen DLP monitor in the city, but Red Cliff will never look half as spectacular as it will on the big – and I mean really big – screen.

Read Full Review >
63

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Even at 148 minutes (and viewed twice!), you still feel as if you’re watching the longest coming attraction ever for a John Woo movie.

Read Full Review >
60

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Overlong but ambitious, Woo proves he's as good at tactical maneuvers as he is at close-quarters combat.

Read Full Review >
60

Time Out New York Joshua Rothkopf

For all his brilliance with choreography, Woo is flummoxed by the thousands of actual human extras, though there’s no denying his commitment to the finer points of battle tactics (yawn).

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Linda C gave it a10:
Bravo John Woo, cast and crew! War can never be made beautiful, romantic though many government and its leaders try to. However, the experience that human beings can have despite war can be beautiful, romantic; John, cast and crew achieve that in a mesmerizing way.

TDKinDallas gave it a6:
Major disappointment after waiting for so long for it to come to Dallas! I still recommend seeing it, but it is really only for people who enjoy HK movies. I was expecting a new type of movie by Woo combining the techniques he learned in the US with his HK style. Another notch up in movie making like when he came to the US. Instead, it is as if he changed to someone else HK style devoid of his usual kinetic energy. There was not one moment in this movie that said "John Woo" has been here to me. For a HK movie it is pretty friggin' incredible and I have to admit that my score, instead of being weighted a little higher because it is a HK movie, is weighted a little lower because of my disappointment in the new Woo. Have a Merry Christmas!

Roger J gave it a5:
Over exaggerated martial art. didn't stick to the history as we know from costume to item.

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | March Madness | TV | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use