The Eight Hundred

The Eight Hundred bites off more that it can chew but it consistently serves up gripping filmmaking on the biggest canvas.

"The Eight Hundred" fetishizes martyrdom, but for those seeking big-screen, epic violence, it's pretty much the only game in town.

Guan goes hammer and tongs with the special effects, delivering stupendously, joint-rattlingly-loud battle scenes and combat sequences edited to the lightning pace of a superhero movie.

The Eight Hundred is thin on characterization, and too often slips into rote narrative and war movie cliches.

[A]t least those who like blunt metaphors with their war movies will get a kick out of Hu's most blatant device: a majestic white horse that the NRA lets gallop through the warehouse as if rubber-stamped with the words "hope."

Plunges audiences into both the intimacy and magnitude of brutal war spectacle while immersing them in a stunningly mounted period canvas.

The Eight Hundred may be too arduous for those simply wanting some mindless Big Screen spectacle. But if this break from superheroes and star ships has you yearning to try something new, this ambitious recreation of history is worth your time.

The Eight Hundred is a war film that set out to tell its story by not shying away from the brutality of it all. On that level, The Eight Hundred is an absolute success.

Flag-waving propaganda it may be, but The Eight Hundred makes for stirring, satisfying entertainment.

Every penny of the considerable budget is up there on the screen, with the blood and grime of the battlefield conveyed through intense action.