i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Good idea lost in the noise

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Once again I hadn't read anything about the movie going in to watch it. Though I knew that Andy Lau was in it and with a title like that ... well what can one expect? A movie about Shaoling of course and one with quite a few stunts and fight scenes. And the movie delivers in that regard. It also had a "surprise" star (though again he is named here and can be seen on the poster and everywhere else) for me.On the other hand someone like Tse seems to almost bring the movie down. His character is laughable and there does not seem to be a big motivation behind some of his doings. But sometimes you need characters like that I guess. Overall, a decent movie that might entertain you, if you are into that sort of movies.

There's nothing better than a film with an uplifting moral message bought to you interspersed with lots of martial arts action and blowing stuff up. I can therefore heartily recommend this film.Whilst being a good watch there is also some good old-fashioned silly translations to add to the enjoyment. "Don't mess with the Shaolin Temple" is one fine example and another is "You bastards come and attack the temple, I'll send you to the Netherworld." (I don't know if you get this with the English soundtrack as I was watching the subtitled version.) There's a solid storyline and the usual stuff about the baddie finding redemption and making good his evil ways but it's not as 2-dimensional as these plots often are as you see the effect on Andy Lau's wife and daughter in no uncertain terms. The martial arts action is good though not outstanding. Jackie Chan has a supporting role but when he does eventually get an action scene it is laugh out loud funny and absolutely true to the character he plays in the film.It's not the world's best film but it would be hard to go wrong with this if you want to watch an entertaining epic with lots of action. I'm intrigued to know how much of the battles scenes and destruction of buildings was CGI and how much miniatures. I suspect it was a mixture. I'll have to listen to the DVD commentary to find out

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.

I have to admit this was not one movie Andy Lau, was meant to be in: at least not a monk. At times the plot gets confusing though it makes me think: Why did he become a monk? I mean really it could have gone in an opposite direction. But the message is quite clear where cruelty is not an absolute answer to everything, with responsibility there is more steps you have to take to watch yourself. That is really quite it of what I watched this movie. 1. story line was quite weak with transition with the general turning into a monk, it almost seem like he was a coward. 2. though give them credit where its due which, there is compassion and forgiveness where Buddihism comes into play. Amazingly they only fight for their self righteousness and self defences. 3. overall I only would recommend viewers seeing this for time to kill or nothing else to do. When i say it missed the mark it seemed like I was watching Ghandi, but the shortened version. The best part of the films is at the end where everything comes together to tells a story of the nonsense. Between the struggling of the feudal lords and their ideals to gain in whatever way.