Curse of the Golden Flower 
Director: Zhang Yimou. Screenplay: Zhang Yimou, based on the play “Thunderstorm” by Cao Yu. Cinematography: Zhao Xiaoding. Production design: Huo Tingxiao Music: Umebayashi Shigeru. Producers: William Kong, Zhang Weiping, Zhang Yimou. With: Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Chou Jay, Liu Ye, Ni Dahong, Qin Junjie, Li Man, Chen Jin. Hong Kong/China. In Mandarin. 114 min. Original title: Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia. 2006.
A majestic festival is set to begin at the imperial palace in tenth-century China, but all is not well with the royal family, which is stricken with enough intermingled intrigues to fill a dozen ancient Greek tragedies. Some find this dramatic extravaganza too ornate, especially in its riotous use of vivid colors. I find it a triumphant return to form (not that he ever drifted very far from it) for China’s greatest filmmaker, who started his career as a cinematographer and has never stopped broadening and refining his multifaceted visual sensibility. Here he’s working again with his greatest star—the inimitable Gong Li, as resplendent as ever—with Chow Yun-Fat and a sensational supporting cast to back her up. The point of the picture isn’t narrative logic or psychological depth; it’s the exhilarating pleasure of sheer cinematic spectacle, and on that level it’s as thrilling a picture as we’ve had in a mighty long while. – David Sterritt
*
Firehouse Dog
Director: Todd Holland. Screenplay: Claire-Dee Lim, Mike Werb, Michael Colleary. Cinematography: Victor Hammer. Film editing: Scott J. Wallace. Production design: Tamara Deverell. Music: Jeff Cardoni. Producers: Michael Colleary, Michael J. Maschio, Mike Werb. With: Josh Hutcherson, Bruce Greenwood, Bill Nunn, Scotch Ellis Loring, Mayte Garcia, Teddy Sears, Steven Culp, Dash Mihok, Bree Turner, Hannah Lochner, Claudette Mink. USA/Canada. 111 min. 2007.
Adventure about a spunky kid, a lost movie-star pooch who can’t find his way back to Hollywood, and the crew of a dilapidated firehouse. Lively but childish, with more stupid gags than anyone over ten should have to put up with. – David Sterritt
*
Hannibal Rising
Director: Peter Webber. Screenplay: Thomas Harris, based on his novel. Cinematography: Ben Davis. Film editing: Valerio Bonelli, Pietro Scalia. Production design: Allan Starski. Music: Ilan Eshkeri, Shigeru Umebayashi. Producers: Tarak Ben Ammar, Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis, With: Rhys Ifans, Richard Brake, Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Dominic West. France/UK/USA. 117 min. 2007.
Unlike the previous Hannibal Lecter movies, all of which are engrossing and clever, this prequel is awful, even if Harris did condescend to write the screenplay for a change. Ulliel has zero charisma, menacing or otherwise, and the look of the picture is as grungy as the plot, notwithstanding the production’s evidently generous budget. For one example of its dopiness, it’s hard to imagine what could have prompted the filmmakers to introduce a mask with prominent teeth that foreshadow Lecter’s evil machinations by resembling not his own biological choppers, but the stylized ones on the headpiece his jailers make him wear in the other installments. It’s an over-strained gimmick, not smart or funny or scary. Neither is the rest of the picture. – David Sterritt
Director: Zhang Yimou. Screenplay: Zhang Yimou, based on the play “Thunderstorm” by Cao Yu. Cinematography: Zhao Xiaoding. Production design: Huo Tingxiao Music: Umebayashi Shigeru. Producers: William Kong, Zhang Weiping, Zhang Yimou. With: Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Chou Jay, Liu Ye, Ni Dahong, Qin Junjie, Li Man, Chen Jin. Hong Kong/China. In Mandarin. 114 min. Original title: Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia. 2006.
A majestic festival is set to begin at the imperial palace in tenth-century China, but all is not well with the royal family, which is stricken with enough intermingled intrigues to fill a dozen ancient Greek tragedies. Some find this dramatic extravaganza too ornate, especially in its riotous use of vivid colors. I find it a triumphant return to form (not that he ever drifted very far from it) for China’s greatest filmmaker, who started his career as a cinematographer and has never stopped broadening and refining his multifaceted visual sensibility. Here he’s working again with his greatest star—the inimitable Gong Li, as resplendent as ever—with Chow Yun-Fat and a sensational supporting cast to back her up. The point of the picture isn’t narrative logic or psychological depth; it’s the exhilarating pleasure of sheer cinematic spectacle, and on that level it’s as thrilling a picture as we’ve had in a mighty long while. – David Sterritt
*
Firehouse Dog
Director: Todd Holland. Screenplay: Claire-Dee Lim, Mike Werb, Michael Colleary. Cinematography: Victor Hammer. Film editing: Scott J. Wallace. Production design: Tamara Deverell. Music: Jeff Cardoni. Producers: Michael Colleary, Michael J. Maschio, Mike Werb. With: Josh Hutcherson, Bruce Greenwood, Bill Nunn, Scotch Ellis Loring, Mayte Garcia, Teddy Sears, Steven Culp, Dash Mihok, Bree Turner, Hannah Lochner, Claudette Mink. USA/Canada. 111 min. 2007.
Adventure about a spunky kid, a lost movie-star pooch who can’t find his way back to Hollywood, and the crew of a dilapidated firehouse. Lively but childish, with more stupid gags than anyone over ten should have to put up with. – David Sterritt
*
Hannibal Rising
Director: Peter Webber. Screenplay: Thomas Harris, based on his novel. Cinematography: Ben Davis. Film editing: Valerio Bonelli, Pietro Scalia. Production design: Allan Starski. Music: Ilan Eshkeri, Shigeru Umebayashi. Producers: Tarak Ben Ammar, Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis, With: Rhys Ifans, Richard Brake, Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Dominic West. France/UK/USA. 117 min. 2007.
Unlike the previous Hannibal Lecter movies, all of which are engrossing and clever, this prequel is awful, even if Harris did condescend to write the screenplay for a change. Ulliel has zero charisma, menacing or otherwise, and the look of the picture is as grungy as the plot, notwithstanding the production’s evidently generous budget. For one example of its dopiness, it’s hard to imagine what could have prompted the filmmakers to introduce a mask with prominent teeth that foreshadow Lecter’s evil machinations by resembling not his own biological choppers, but the stylized ones on the headpiece his jailers make him wear in the other installments. It’s an over-strained gimmick, not smart or funny or scary. Neither is the rest of the picture. – David Sterritt
