tony pierce.com + mary!
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   Sunday, September 12, 2004  
hero
starring jet li, zhang ziyi, tony leung chiu-wai, donnie yen, and maggie cheung as flying snow
directed by zhang yimou

she was all he doesnt even know where his heart is!

i was like shhhh, its sunday. lets try to keep it holy.

she scoffed and hissed "ironic" into her sunday paper.

the raiders were losing on 2. the bears were winning on 702 and the cubs were losing on 307.

it was warm in hollywood, almost hot, but nothing a little fan couldnt handle.

not yet noon.

and all i could think of was hero. the movie that quentin tarantino brought to america. not much of a risk figuring that when it was released in china in 2002 it became the biggest domestic grossing film in chinese history.

and it should be. it's gorgeous, it's smart, it's action packed, and it's got a great story. i'd put my money on that horse.

it reminds us of a time when a hero was a fearless warrior who was rewarded when he defeated an enemy

a time when leaders were smart and strong and visonary

and a time when, indeed, one could challenge another to a duel.

95 percent of the 149 critics on rotten tomatoes gave hero a positive review.

the five percent who somehow remained unmoved by this masterful film were distracted by the similarities between it and acadamey award winning crouching tiger, hidden dragon.

it's my belief, however, that you can borrow from a style, liberally even, as is in this case,

if you can do something with that style, like lift it to an even higher level.

zhang yimou effortlessly brings the ang lee style into a higher level, by adding to it with layers of slow motion tricks, adventures in lighting, and visual storytelling.

the screenwriting involves an interesting combination of tarantino's telling the story from different perspectives mixed with shakespeare and "high noon".

a beautifully violent movie whose creamy center is undebatedly

peace and love.

two thousand years from now todays leaders should only hope that they're biographed this wonderfully.

the search for utopia + rollerskate skinny + kitty bukkake is beautifully shocking


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