Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

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.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

SnoopyStyle It's 689 A.D. China. Wu Zetian is set to be crowned as the first female empress. She faces great opposition ready to overthrow her. A towering Buddha is under construction for her inauguration. During a tour with a foreign ambassador, an official spontaneously combust. Officer Pei Donglai goes to investigate and his superior is killed. Shangguan Jing'er is the Empress' attendant. Dee is released from prison and reinstated as the Imperial Commissioner to solve Phantom Flame Case.I started out much more invested in the mystery. The movie sets up a great Sherlock mystery to solve. Then it overflows with wild fight spectacular. It's imaginative fun but the mystery gets muddled. It does some bizarre acupuncture plastic surgery and hallucinatory bucks. It's so wild that the movie loses its meaning for me. I just lose my way in this funhouse martial arts movie.

Joe There's some very good things to say about this film. Great set pieces, wonderful camera work and some very good actors. Colourful, historic and epic in its aims, with some great but not overly violent martial artistry.Yet for all that it ticks off on the list, it's just not very engrossing.The detective story is a bit convoluted and tries to marry magic, superstition, rationalism and surprise. Yet, it gets all a little too confusing and not something you can accept. I agree that you have to suspend disbelief, but you are meant to be figuring out the mystery and you just lose interest when some of the revelations are made. Some of it is clever but too left-field to admire.This is just a disappointment. I just couldn't get into this, I watched to the end and was left just underwhelmed. As said, I liked a number of things about this film, yet the sum of its parts is definitely not less than the whole.

Tony Heck "Men have weak points, just like weapons. They will also break when struck." Wu Zetian wants to become China's first Supreme Empress. While the stage and Buddah is being constructed for the inauguration strange things begin to happen. First Master Jia spontaneously com-busts, followed by more people bursting into flames. The empress wants this mystery solved before she takes over and there is only one person she can think of to solve it, Detective Dee (Lau) a prisoner in jail for treason. Can he put aside his feelings and solve the mystery of the phantom flame in time? This is not usually the type of genre I get into, but I did enjoy this movie. The tag-line says "Crouching Tiger meets Sherlock Holmes", it's hard to disagree with that statement. I will add that I think this is a type of modern Kurosawa film. The feel and the plot are something that he would do, and the ending very much reminds me of his style in the way that you aren't really sure if the ending is good or bad for those involved and makes you think. Overall, again this is not normally my type of movie but I did very much enjoy it. Good story and action. I give it a B+.

pridemorek It had been a while since I had seen a Tsui Hark movie. I now feel remiss in not better keeping up with his career.Detective Dee is fantastic! The visuals are stunning. The sweeping, epic scenery and the HUGE set pieces transported me fully into the era of the Tang Dynasty. I was impressed by the CGI, often having trouble distinguishing where the real, physical parts of the set ended and the computer generated world began. The cinematography is superb.The story was complex but still digestible. The filmmakers threw up enough red herrings to keep me guessing while making it believable that Detective Dee could solve the case without huge leaps in logic.I found Andy Lau's performance effective, but was particularly impressed by Carina Lau who played Empress Wu. Her performance was both subtle and powerful. She was mesmerizing anytime she was on screen.As for the fight scenes, well... wow. I mean, really, WOW! The complexity of the final fight between Dee and the person he figures out committed the crime made fight scenes in the Bourne series look like child's play. Seriously. Now, there was wire work - I know some people really dislike that stuff in Kung Fu style movies, but it really worked in this setting. I hope people will give this one a chance. I really thought Detective Dee was fantastic!