Shaolin Review and Trailer

I’m not going to lie; I only asked to review this film because I thought it had something to do with The Wu-Tang Clan. As it turns out I was mistaken. And what a wonderful mistake it was. For with all do respect to RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, this movie was captivating in a way that a hip-hop film could never be. That having been said, it’s hard to know where to start heaping the praise, since this film succeeds on so many levels. I guess I’ll just start at the bottom and work my way up from there.

I’ve always felt that the backbone of any good film is the writing. It’s easy to hire a gaggle of computer geeks to create CGI that’ll blow the audience’s mind, but if the audience can’t stay awake throughout the entire film because of the inane dialogue than what’s the point. And yes, I’m talking to you James Cameron. And that’s the foremost reason Saolin is such an amazing film: it simply has great writing. It is subtle and poetic when it needs to be, and at other times it is intense and brutal.