AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Lomedin With a running time over 2 hours, I found this movie a bit slow and extremely over-dramatized. I mean no disrespect for the events that led to the China Revolution of the beginning of the 20th century, although trying to put too much drama into this by ways of overacting and continuously falling in a pit of drama is not helping much.There are a couple of moments that shine, like the fight of the policeman with one of the assassins or, particularly, the apparition of the cleaned up beggar. Well, in fact, these are the only 2 real fights in the whole movie.This movie could have done much better without so much drama and little less running time. In order to make people know about the Revolution, you don't need to make a mockery out of the real tragedy.

SquirrelCutter I enjoyed this film, as I do anything with Donnie Yen. Being a Westerner I have to say this movie is hard to follow. I don't know the history, and the subtitles leave a lot to be desired, but I feel it was a worthy purchase. Beautifully filmed, a little drawn out, well acted. No real fighting until the end, and an epic ending it is. Several scenes I had to back up and watch a few times to figure out exactly what happened in the fights because it all goes by fast. Lots of interesting side stories, convoluted plot, but a deeply touching and human tale of that period of Chinese history I guess. I'd give it two big thumbs up. I'll watch it again after a few months, sometimes it pays to put some time between the first viewing and subsequent watchings on stuff like this.I am a huge fan of Eastern cinema, I own a bunch of 'em ranging from Shaw Brothers stuff from the 70s to whatever is the latest. I especially love Japanese chambara, but a good Chinese film is hard to beat. Yeah, there is some wire fu, but the story is worth dealing with flying kung fu guys.That Donnie Yen is a badass, never disappoints. If you haven't seen his Ip Man stuff yet, do that. You won't be sorry.

tgairey This movie blew me away. Martial Arts films can be, and have been done so wrong in the past, but this really surpassed my expectations. It was so beautifully shot and choreographed that the subtitles don't pose a problem like they do in some foreign films. Setting the film in the past was done well also. The set direction and costuming married very well the the actors. Speaking of the actors, they did an amazing job as well. You can really tell that they committed to their characters. You really do feel the pain and sense of honor these characters go through in this journey. I definitely recommend this movie for martial arts lovers everywhere. http://tinyurl.com/Bodyguards-and-Assassins

gregsie74 ...i was right. Big blockbuster aimed at mainland Chinese audience. lots of nationalism and lots of stars emoting. but somehow it didn't work. yes i have read a lot of reviews on IMDb and was intrigued to find out what people thought and i agree with one guy who said that that there's great build up but the ending was just over the top action. i mean the acting at some points is really great. the main guy is really good and holds the film together;Nicolas ste does quite a touching turn in his role, and Donnie yen plays a loser in it , quite convincingly. but it just all seemed to be manipulation for the final climax...cue sun yut sen hidden from view with his white hat.OK so I've also read reviews that this has great nationalistic appeal because of the legend of sun yut sen but unfortunately for me, I'm not too keen on manipulation , whether its nationalist or not. and although i liked parts of the drama in the first half,although it did get a bit meandering after a while as i wasn't sure who to focus on, when it comes to the action bit. i had to pause it. i mean the tone totally changed. from drama with some decent acting in it ( as if it were Wong kar wai) to b movie with the big giant in it. i should have guessed what the giant was in it for but basically its the token lovable giant character thats a throw back to goonies and its just a bit cheesy. in fact the whole action set up of protecting this dude with the white hat. i mean there's no explanation. he doesn't talk, hes just a dude in a white hat. yes to mainlanders hes sun yut sen but from a normal film-goer hes a dude in a white hat that lots of people run through fruit markets ready to take a shed-load of arrows as they run through street-crowds. it just didn't make any sense.the action just suddenly appeared and all the build up ( not that the build up was all that engaging ) as i think there were too many characters and not enough interest. the Leon lai character was a complete EH character. i mean what the hell, he just slept on the floor throughout the film and took a bath, and then as I'm about to see , take on an army of men. i mean EH? makes no sense. Chinese action filmmakers seem to love their slow motion and emoting but there's no real trust of the script. which is quite well written at times . finally there's Donnie yen. well we cant have a Donnie yen film without Donnie kicking ass can we? the problem is that he suddenly moves from being unshaven drunk to bad-ass Donnie yen in the blink of an eye and his character just vanishes because...well...no one messes with Donnie yen. .the fight between him and cung le was just b movie action, wasn't sure the importance of cung le but it just interrupted the flow of the main film. the ending between him and cung le was just manipulative and like the whole film didn't have any real personal drama but just played on symbolism and i haven't gotten to the bit where he punches a horse in the face but anyway you get the idea towards the very end the melodrama was touching. between the father and son and actually this scene with tony leung trying to aim his gun was quite good too, suddenly the film regained its Oscar worthy status.but because of everything thing beforehand: Leon lai fighting, Donnie yen horse-punching, all trying to get in the way of a dumb assassin. the stupidity of the film let it down. and the close up of sun yut sen was a bit heavy handed. like i said if it wasn't playing on the nationalism of the Chinese,id say he looked uncannily like a woman with a mustache. from the very start despite the posters and big announcements and premature nationalist back-patting hype i wasn't expecting a lot from this film, like i said i had the idea it'd be an odd mix of drama, action and that it lasted 3hrs( hence my reluctance to watch it for a while)and as the cast weren't really 'actors' but more 'characters' and yet this was a story that required 'actors' and less action. i mean Simon lam, probably the best hope of an actor in the film, dies too early with a pointless character, tony leung hides behind his glasses doing nothing except looking scared. the only real actor is the main guy who has dignity and grace. and his son wasn't too bad of an actor either , but the others. played character parts. and to be frank, needed better actors with better stories, or just cut out of the script completely. OK I've rambled long enough. too many characters. too pointless stories.action seemed OK but didn't mix with the drama which in turn didn't really have any interesting turns. manipulative melodrama. bit boring at times.you get the idea.cung le vs yen? not as interesting as yen vs horse.I'm afraid. i like Eric stang with mustache tho. he looks like Mr creosote in the meaning of life.'another wafer monsieur?'Not the best way to review this example of 10yrs of Peter Chan's hard work in getting this to the screen but hey, it won loads of awards and made lots of money so who cares , right?