pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

enrigue8 Excellent movie with awesome action, extraordinary pictures and contain unforgettable specials effects. Cheng Pei-Pei is as talented as always and Cecilia Cheung is still talented and beautiful .Thank you to the great Frankie Chan for this beautiful movie and thank you for all the movies you have done and played in the past with all these grand Chinese stars movies like Chen Kuan Tai, Ti Lung, David Chan,Derek Yee and many others stars.From a fan who love you and who love the great movies in which all of you had shined in the past.

Paul Magne Haakonsen When I purchased this movie from Amazon, it was with a certain amount of expectation to it; because it had Cecilia Cheung in it, plus it also brandished "impressive" and "a genre breakthrough" on the cover. Uhm, yeah, what genre are they making a breakthrough in? Having seen the movie, I sit here somewhat dazzled. Why? Well, because the movie was only partially as I had expected it to be. The good part about the movie is that it is sort of an epic movie in itself, and they managed to build up a good sense of believability with the sets and the whole feeling to the movie.The armors and the costumes in the movie were amazing to look at. There were so many small details in everything that it was just spectacular. And that is one of the better parts of the movie, because they really managed to bring the feel of the given era to life on the screen.And the battle scenes were grand and mostly epic. Lots of really nice fighting, action and choreography here. You might notice that I said 'mostly'. Yeah, because there were scenes during the fight that were painfully obviously staged and looked that way as well.The less than impressive aspects of the movie, were many of the death scenes were just hilarious to look at, reminding me of something from the old black and white movie genre. You see someone struggling, then falling down awkwardly and laying still. It was just too staged and fake, and most of the death scenes in the movie here were just among some of the worst death scenes I have seen in similar movies.Another thing that didn't really aid the movie in its progress was the way the director attempted to mix epic warfare with the petty feudal matters of a house in the royal Chinese army. It just seemed a little bit too much - delving a bit too far into being a Chinese soap opera.And finally, there were just too many characters to keep track of, and you just ended up shrugging your shoulders whenever one of the Yang family died, because you had no idea who it was or had any particular kind of 'on-screen relationship' to that person. It was like they were all extras in the frame just to add to the chaos.In overall, then "Legendary Amazons" - despite its cheesy title - is an average movie of this genre; nothing breakthrough to be had here. There are far better movies available in the same genre. And truth be told, then Cecilia Cheung and Richie Ren did little to raise the appeal of the movie. It was a fairly average experience, and hence, the 5 out of 10 rating from me.

webmaster-3017 The Legendary Amazons looks great on paper, produced and funded by Asian superstar Jackie Chan, aided by a huge budget to burn, a quality cast list of Richie Ren, Cecilia Cheung, the return of much missed Kathy Chow and old school veteran Cheng Pei-Pei and directed by a veteran in the HK film industry in Frankie Chan. So what exactly went wrong? The answer is everything. From the lame and weak script, cheesy acting, extremely poor directing and execution, The Legendary Amazons promises a lot, but delivers absolutely nothing. When you have one of the best actresses in Hong Kong cinema in Cecilia Cheung, one wonders how she can turn in a career suicide performance. Apart from the NT$30 million pay check that she received from the role, her performance here is laughable at best and a far cry from the days of being acclaimed in Lost in Time and A Nite in Mongkok. Richie Ren is one actor that have improved dramatically in the past decade and in particular due to his involvement in numerous Johnny To's films, but here, he lacks presence, more wooden than Edison Chen and his character is far to distant for the audience to feel for him. Perhaps the best thing in the film comes in the form of the much missed Kathy Chow and despite her limited screen time, she graced the film with the same determination like she did 13 years ago in the grity Beast Cops. Still, the shoulder of blame should be attributed to Frankie Chan, a director who have not done much in the past decade and have not made a decent film in almost 20 years. With such a huge budget on the ball, what was Jackie Chan thinking? Couldn't he have at least gone for someone who can handle epic commercial war movies like Benny Chan or himself? These are all questions that are no longer of importance, as the fact is out there – The Legendary Amazons is a bad film and there are no excuses to be made. All in all, The Legendary Amazons fails big time, especially with all the talent involved. To say The Legendary Amazons is a bad film is an understatement, as not only did it fail to meet expectations, but it is an outright disappointing effort. If not for some good action scenes and the grand scale of the battle scenes, the film will not even be watchable. Still, for such a film, being watchable is not good enough and let's hope this is just a one off mis-step from Cecilia Cheung, as this is easily her worst performance in her career. It is that disappointing…Neo rates it 3/10

moviexclusive Finally! After the glut of big-budget historical war epics that have seen tears and bloodshed, at last we get one that injects some levity into the heavy-handed genre. Yes, there is humour aplenty in director Frankie Chan's latest take on the classic 'Lady Warriors of the Yang Family', apparently titled 'Legendary Amazons' as a nod to the Shaw Brothers 1972 movie 'The 14 Amazons'- and if you're thinking how such a story would lend itself to comedy, wait till you've seen this adaptation. A prologue establishes the war between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty, the former led by General Yang Zongbao (Ritchie Jen) outnumbered against the latter's troops launching a fiercely fought border incursion. Facing imminent death, General Yang ties a bundle of hair to a pigeon and sends it off to his wife Mu Guiying (Cecilia Cheung). How ingeniously amusing! What are the odds that a bundle of Mu's hair carried on the pigeon would be a message of defeat? And what are the odds that the Xia enemies would have on hand a pair of eagles that is, we may add, too quickly shot down as soon as they are released to catch the said pigeon? It gets even better- as news of Zongbao's apparent death spreads around the Yang family clan, with nary a man except for Zongbao and Guiying's son Yang Wenguang (Xiao Mingyu), the whole gathering of women gathered for his 18th birthday celebration start weeping uncontrollably as if on cue. Then, just as quickly, it is decided that the wilful Wenguang- whose earlier childish act of blowing up a wall in the house compound just to get out- will be appointed to lead the Yangs, and with that, fireworks start exploding into the night sky. What a brilliant show of over-the-top humour! But nothing can quite prepare you for the hilarity as the Yang clan set off to war in obedience of the imperial edict. The first confrontation finds the Yangs outnumbered against their enemies, splitting into five separate divisions to divide up their enemy and hopefully defeat them guerrilla-style. Their tactic is ultimately undone when the reckless Wenguang gets duped by the Xia's into saving his father- but even before you chuckle at his foolishness, you'll find yourself tickled silly as his mother Muiying challenges him right on the sideline and usurps his status as marshal. Somehow, we never recalled the family fighting amongst themselves as a centrepiece of their heroism, but hey it makes for good amusement. Just as comical is the Yang women's defiance of gravity, leaping into the air and performing some quite marvellous stunts that they can very well parlay into lucrative public entertainment after the war. We have Frankie and old-school villain actor Fung Hak-On to thank for that, with some generous help no doubt from Jet Li's master Wu Bin credited as 'kungfu consultant'. No kidding! We were however unable to identify who was responsible for the numerous heroic deaths we witnessed throughout the film, because we'd like to thank that person for the hilariously fake blood spurting out and the exaggerated dying. Inspired too is the casting of the film. Lead actress Cecilia Cheung, who was reportedly paid a cool NTD$30 million to star, has a heretofore unknown gift of acting shocked that will make you burst out laughing. You have to also hand it to the filmmakers for assembling such a professional cast of actors- including veterans Ritchie, Ge Chunyan, Yukari Oshima and Kathy Chow- who are able to keep such straight serious faces in spite of the hilarious mayhem unfolding before them. When you're having so much fun, you probably won't be bothered by the messy and quite incoherent script (written by Frankie, Liu Heng and Ma Honglu) that can't quite make up its mind if certain characters- wounded or killed- should stay that way. And here we would like to ask for your pardon for our insolence thus far- it's probably clear to you that we were being sarcastic all the way, but we thought comedy must have been the sole intention of the filmmakers going by how atrocious the film really is. If you have to know, it's histrionic, over-the-top and melodramatic every step of the way. The acting is equally ridiculous, with Cecilia taking the cake for being quite possibly in line for the worst actress of the year. And what of the plentiful action scenes? They are, like the script, chaotic and illogical- worse still when you can so evidently tell the green screen behind which their landscapes were filled in. We'll leave you with quite possibly one of the most ridiculous scenes we've seen this year- a makeshift bridge assembled with two chains of metal shot from one end of a cliff to another with human steps made up of soldiers on their backs clinging onto both chains, all for the sake of their Empress Dowager-like commander Taijun (Cheng Peipei) to get across. Need a good laugh? Then we'd recommend 'Legendary Amazons', one of the most unintentionally laugh-out-loud movies you'll find this year. At least it makes a genre breakthrough by showing how you can do comedy in the midst of a big-budget historical war epic.