SHAOLIN (China, Hong Kong, 2011)
Directed by: Benny Chan
Starring: Andy Lau, Nic Tse, Jackie Chan, Fan Bingbing, Wu Jing, Yu Hai

Benny Chan is one of those Hong Kong directors who never gets mentioned in the same breath as his more famous contemporaries, and his only crime is wanting to entertain you.  Peruse his greatest hits:  A Moment of Romance.  Big Bullet.  Who Am I?  Gen-X Cops.  Invisible Target.  Hell, he remade the crappy Hollywood movie Cellular in Cantonese, called it Connected and made it GOOD.  Clearly, the man has the skills to pay the bills.  But where's the recognition?  With Shaolin, Chan may not have to wait much longer.  Stacked high with stars, spectacle, emotion, transcendental enlightenment and serious ass-kicking, this is gourmet popcorn on a massive scale.

General Hou (the ageless Andy Lau) is not your usual hero.  He's a warlord who's not above shooting a defenseless man in the back if it means he gets his way.  He bullies his lieutenant (pop star and handsome man Nicolas Tse), smooth-talks his wife (the stunningly lovely Fan Bingbing) and plots viciously against even his closest friends.  It goes without saying that his karma is totally screwed, and karma acts fast: in a bone-crunching extended action sequence, Hou's world is turned upside down and he's left a broken, haunted man.  Weak and desperate, he seeks refuge among the Shaolin monks, and thus begins his journey of repentance, redemption, and, it must be repeated, ass-kicking.  Lots and lots of ass-kicking.

With its blue chip cast and big budget, Shaolin could have turned out like so many empty-calorie blockbusters before it, huge and pretty and dull.  But Chan, the showman's showman, refuses to play it like that.  Emotions are high and bruisingly intense, the physical production is eye-popping, and every action scene tops the last until the whole thing reaches a crescendo of large-scale kung fu vs. artillery madness.  Shaolin also has a fiercely beating heart, and it's never clearer than in the scenes with special guest star Jackie Chan, who plays the temple's resident screw-up and cook, Wudao.  When he's not making noodles and telling jokes, he teaches Hou, and us, a few lessons in humility and bravery.  He's tender, fun, full of unexpected depth, and totally awesome in a fight.  And, in a nutshell, that’s SHAOLIN.