List Price: $36.96 Our Price: $25.88YOU SAVE $11.08!
Buy it
DVD House of Flying Daggers/Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
No one uses color like Chinese director Zhang Yimou--movies like Raise the Red Lantern or Hero, though different in tone and subject matter, are drenched in rich, luscious shades of red, blue, yellow, and green. House of Flying Daggers is no exception; if they weren't choreographed with such vigorous imagination, the spectacular action sequences would seem little more than an excuse for vivid hues rippling across the screen. Government officers Leo and Jin (Asian superstars Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) set out to destroy an underground rebellion called the House of Flying Daggers (named for their weapon of choice, a curved blade that swoops through the air like a boomerang). Their only chance to find the rebels is a blind women named Mei (Ziyi Zhang, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) who has some lethal kung fu moves of her own. In the guise of an aspiring rebel, Jin escorts Mei through gorgeous forests and fields that become bloody battlegrounds as soldiers try to kill them both. While arrows and spears of bamboo fly through the air, Mei, Jin, and Leo turn against each other in surprising ways, driven by passion and honor. Zhang's previous action/art film, Hero, sometimes sacrificed momentum for sheer visual beauty; House of Flying Daggers finds a more muscular balance of aesthetic splendor and dazzling swordplay. --Bret Fetzer
Review(s): DVD House of Flying Daggers/Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
This is trash
As a Chinese I am sad to see Zhang Yimou has degraded from his earlier masterpieces like Red Shogum, To Live into trashes like Flying Daggers. The plot is ridiculous and totally meaningless, the acting is false and boring. Zhang is never a good WuXia director, in his earlier years he had been very creative and compassion to shoot some great movies, today he seems totally out of ideas.
To see great martial arts movies I suggest you take a look at Once a Time in China series by Jet Li, Swordsman by Jet Li, and Dragon Inn, all can be rent on DVD.
Flawed - sadly, less than the sum of its parts.
I rented the DVD for the lovely Zhang Ziyi, who's acrobatic beauty and poise are almost supernatural. She's really a singular presence on the screen. But director Yimou Zhang has really irked me, both here and in his other recent film 'Hero'.
His movies rely on plot-twists that contradict and confuse the motivations and emotions of the earlier parts of the story. It's a very tricky game he's playing and by the end of it I felt confused and worn out by the mental gymnastics necessary to follow the multiple plot layers of the whole thing.
Also, CGI effects have become so commonplace that it had little effect on the audience. Daggers and spears flew and there was Fighting everywhere, but I didn't feel the impacts.. I certainly didn't feel any of the secondary motivations, either patriotism or whatever the Robin-Hood traits the Flying Daggers represented. It was just a good high-budget romantic pulp, and it felt a bit thin. How unfortunate.
"Do not fall in love with her..."
The House of Flying Daggers, brings to the screen the story of two soldiers as they try to uncover the mysterious organization of assassins known as The Flying Daggers. The story gets more complicated as things are not as they seem in 9th Century China...
The film combines romance, drama, action and adventure making it one of the best of its kind!
Moreover, the fascinating culture and traditions of China are presented very well in the film.
The plot is excellent and opens a window into the mysterious Orient.
Furthermore, shot on location it provides for some amazing scenery.
Needless to say, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Ziyi Zhang, and the rest of the cast have truly outdone themselves with their performances, which are outstanding to say the least! All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100%! Their great talent and chemistry clearly shows, thus providing an entertaining film that can be watched over and over again.
The setting, the dialogues, the music and the costumes are all wonderful!
Very well written and very well presented, it is a movie definitely worth owning, yet alone watching, especially for those with a soft spot for History, and especially for Eastern/Oriental enthusiasts.
Strongly recommended along with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero, to those with a soft spot for all things Chinese.
Related DVD's House of Flying Daggers/Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
I am a Jet li fan and i am also a true martial arts fanatic, having said that i would like to mention that i try not to be bias, i love this movie this movie is raw poetry and creative imagination in motion, you must embrace the substance of the story and understand the perception created for the ordiance then you must exercise creative thinking along with basic logic, right! there is the recipe to enjoy this movie, i have no complains and i would recomend that you view this yourself don't let anyone tell you about this experience.
as wonderful, stunning, creative movie this definitely on my classic list. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Yimou Zhang DVD Release Date: Released the 30 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.99 Your Price: $14.99YOU SAVE $5!
Buy it
After creating the last great traditionally animated film of the 20th century, The Iron Giant, filmmaker Brad Bird joined top-drawer studio Pixar to create this exciting, completely entertaining computer-animated film. Bird gives us a family of "supers," a brood of five with special powers desperately trying to fit in with the 9-to-5 suburban lifestyle. Of course, in a more innocent world, Bob and Helen Parr were superheroes, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. But blasted lawsuits and public disapproval forced them and other supers to go incognito, making it even tougher for their school-age kids, the shy Violet and the aptly named Dash. When a stranger named Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Pena) secretly recruits Bob for a potential mission, the old glory days spin in his head, even if... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Holly Hunter - Samuel L. Jackson - Jason Lee - Craig T. Nelson DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.99 Your Price: $19.99YOU SAVE $10!
Buy it
Brutal and breathtaking, Sin City is Robert Rodriguez's stunningly realized vision of Frank Miller's pulpy comic books. In the first of three separate but loosely related stories, Marv (Mickey Rourke in heavy makeup) tries to track down the killers of a woman who ended up dead in his bed. In the second story, Dwight's (Clive Owen) attempt to defend a woman from a brutal abuser goes horribly wrong, and threatens to destroy the uneasy truce among the police, the mob, and the women of Old Town. Finally, an aging cop on his last day on the job (Bruce Willis) rescues a young girl from a kidnapper, but is himself thrown in jail. Years later, he has a chance to save her again.
More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 16 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.99 Your Price: $14.99YOU SAVE $5!
Buy it
Batman Begins discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's Batman & Robin. As the title implies, Batman Begins tells the story anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken in by a mysterious instructor named Ducard (Liam Neeson in another mentor role) and urged to become a ninja in the League of Shadows, but he instead returns to his native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is strangling it. But are there forces even more sinister at hand?
Co-written by the team of David S.... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Christopher Nolan DVD Release Date: Released the 18 October 2005 This item is currently not available.
List Price: $30.98 Your Price: YOU SAVE $30.98!
Buy it
With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Alexander Payne DVD Release Date: Released the 05 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.98 Your Price: $13.99YOU SAVE $5.99!
Buy it
