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Rush Hour 2 needs no introduction. When the first movie came out in 1998, no one could have imagined the acclaim and success it would achieve – earning millions at the box office and basically begging for the next part. Usually, nothing exceptional ever comes out of sequels and neither is it expected.

Almost every time, the virgin feeling of the movie concept is absent, the storyline is on a similar pattern, there is no plot mystery and the viewer's feeling for expecting something new is usually not there. It is because, in most cases, the second or third part feels like the continuation of the same idea or maybe something new but on a slightly different tangent. Rush Hour 2 feels just like that. However, it is not implied in any way that the movie is bad – In fact the complete opposite.

You will find watching Rush Hour 2 like coming...

In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Datalore", the Enterprise-d is called to a distant colony where the android Data (Brent Spiner) was found years earlier. When Data was first discovered, he had no memories, although he knew he was constructed by a rogue genius named Dr. Noonien Soong. Soong was blackballed from the scientific community many decades earlier and had to retire to a distant colony to continue his work. Back when Data was discovered, by a starship called the U.S.S. Tripoli, the colony had been destroyed and Soong was missing, presumed dead. Data had no memories of what happened. 

In "Datalore," the Enterprise found something else surviving among the rubble. Pieces of a second android, identical to Data, were found in a previously sealed area. Data and the Enterprise engineers reassemble it and find that it is Lore (also Spiner), another Soong android. Lore, unlike Data,...

Year of the Dragon receives high praise for its realism from ex-Hong Kong mafia member Jimmy Tsui, who rates the gambling-house scene a near-perfect 9/10. Director Michael Cimino spent a year and a half researching and constructing a detailed replica of New York City's Chinatown for the film. Despite its realistic elements, Year of the Dragon faced criticism for perpetuating Asian-American stereotypes and its impact on New York City's Chinatown community.

Year of the Dragon receives a near-perfect score for realism from a mafia expert. Directed by Michael Cimino, with a script he co-wrote with Oliver Stone (based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Daley), the 1985 neo-noir crime thriller follows a police captain in conflict with a ruthless Triad boss in New York City's Chinatown. Mickey Rourke leads the cast as Captain Stanley White alongside John Lone as Joey Tai, the head of the Triads.

In an Insider video,...

There's an entire generation of movie lovers who first encountered Jackie Chan in the "Rush Hour" films. The actor, director and stuntsman didn't have a huge love for the franchise at the time, perhaps because they barely scratched the surface of what he was capable of as a choreographer. Still, his buddy cop films hold a special place in the hearts of countless action fans, and his rapport with co-star Chris Tucker isn't half bad, either.

The "Rush Hour" trilogy hasn't aged the best in the intervening years, thanks in part to its director, Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017. The film's "East meets West" humor would also never fly today, making the franchise something of a time capsule for irreverent, 2000s humor. Still, we could never get enough of Chan and Tucker — that's why we're all still holding out for that potential "Rush Hour 4." While...

Of all the films that have been hawked in the hallways of the American Film Market, certainly one of the most prestigious and celebrated was Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 feature The Last Emperor. And so when the AFM unveiled a poster in 1990 to celebrate its 10th anniversary, an image from that film earned a prominent position among a montage of movies that had found responsive buyers at the market over its first decade.

From the beginning, The Last Emperor promised to be unique. Bertolucci won the approval of the Chinese government, which allowed him not only to work in China but also permitted the production to film within Beijing’s Forbidden City palace complex — the director described it to The New York Times as “the set that Hollywood never dared to build.”

The film told the story of Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who went from being crowned...

Chris Tucker is known for his distinctive voice and unmatched comedy skills. He’s made his mark in Hollywood in various roles, from chatty detectives to standout ensemble performances. Fans have always admired his on-screen charisma. Picking his best acts from a vast list isn’t easy. Still, we’ve curated a list to stir fond memories and discussions. Below, we’ve ranked the top ten Chris Tucker movies based on IMDb viewer ratings. Whether you’ve been a fan for years or just discovered his talent, this guide will highlight his most iconic roles and movie moments.

10 ‘Rush Hour 3’ (2007)

IMDb: 6.2/10 178K | Popularity: 2412 | Metascore: 44

Duration: 1h 31m | Genres: Action, Comedy, Crime | Director: Brett Ratner

Cast: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Max von Sydow

The third entry in the famous “Rush Hour” series sees Chris Tucker team up once more with Jackie Chan. Playing the ever-loud LAPD detective James Carter, Tucker...

Welcome to this review of All Elite Wrestling: Double Or Nothing, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we lost Hana Kimura, Shad Gaspard and Larry Csonka. Shad and Larry have GoFundMe pages you can donate to here and here. When I was Pam Grier, my sweet, black ass always loved to watch half-naked people grab each other real hard and I’m doing that now as Double Or Nothing begins…now.

Match #1: Best Friends defeated Private Party

My Opinion: 3.4 out of 5 – This was a sparkly match. Sparkly is the word I’m sticking with…sparkly out the ass. While no Steiners/Road Warriors clash of maniacs frenzy, this was an encouraging sign for Aew’s tag division, as Pp did better than they have in the past, while the BFs line-danced their way to the win.

Match #2: Brian Cage defeated Darby Allin, Colt Cabana, Orange Cassidy,...

by Cláudio Alves

Parasite made history by becoming the first non-English-language production to win the Best Picture Oscar. Its many victories marked a series of firsts for the Academy, but there's a couple of feats that Bong Joon-ho's masterpiece shares with other winners. As it happens, Parasite is the third film with a majority Asian cast to conquer Best Picture. The Last Emperor and Slumdog Millionaire are the other two. Another thing they share is a glaring lack of acting nominations, which is rare for Best Picture champions. It's difficult to peruse the data and not smell a whiff of systematic racism.

John Lone's absence from the Oscar line-up for his starring role in The Last Emperor is particularly odd…...

By Fred Blosser

In Michael Cimino’s “Year of the Dragon” (1985), now available in a handsome Blu-ray edition from the Warner Archive Collection, gang war threatens to erupt in New York’s Chinatown when the city’s elderly Triad kingpin is spectacularly murdered by a young Chinese thug. Police Captain Stanley White (Mickey Rourke) is brought in to crack down before more blood is spilled, as long as he doesn’t crack down too hard. As far as the NYPD and the neighborhood elders are concerned, things are fine the way they are in Chinatown under the Triad. All that’s needed is to bring the suddenly upstart youth gangs under control. But Stanley knows that the only way to really clean up Chinatown is to wipe out the underlying corruption of the Triad itself. To that end, he plunges into his assignment with a zeal that even Dirty Harry Callahan might find excessive.

Happy Monday, everyone! Before we head into Memorial Day, we have more horror and sci-fi Blu-ray and DVD releases coming our way that should definitely keep genre fans busy for the three-day weekend. Scream Factory is keeping busy with their Blus for The Seduction, The Hunted, and the recent psychological thriller A Dark Place. Shout Select is showing Earthquake some love with their Collector’s Edition this week, and Kino Lorber has two stellar-looking Special Edition releases on their docket as well: Black Moon Rising and Bitter Moon.

Other exciting titles coming home on May 21st include White Chamber, She-Devils on Wheels, A Brilliant Monster, and Crank in 4K.

Black Moon Rising: Special Edition

When master thief Sam Quint is hired by the government to steal top-secret data from a crime organization, he hides the stolen data in the experimental supercar, The Black Moon. But when the car is then...

Great news for fans of Mickey Rourke! Year Of The Dragon is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archives. Pre-order information can be found Here.

Corruption. Extortion. Sometimes, even assassination. For the tradition-bound mob bosses of Manhattan’s Chinatown, there are age-old ways of running things. And now there’s police captain Stanley White’s way.

Mickey Rourke portrays White, a war veteran who has a Vietnam-sized chip on his shoulder when dealing with an emerging blood feud in Chinatown. John Lone plays the crime lord standing in the line of fire of White’s relentless campaign. And Academy Award®-winning* director Michael Cimino, working from a screenplay based on the novel by Robert Daley (Prince of the City) and coscripted by Oliver Stone, fills the screen with adrenaline rushes of action and excitement.

Mickey Rourke stars as Stanley White, the “most decorated cop in the history of the New York Police Department...

Chinese-American actress, writer and director Joan Chen says that she was flattered when Time magazine described her as the “Elizabeth Taylor of China.”

When asked at an in-conversation event in Singapore on Saturday whether she paved the way for Chinese actresses to follow in Hollywood, Chen said, “We never go to work because we want to pave the way for other actors. We go to work because we are compelled to, we must, we love it and it feeds us.”

Chen was a juror at the 2nd International Film Festival & Awards Macao, in 2017. “Sometimes the reality is, you open the way for others, but obviously that wasn’t my motivation,” Chen said. When Chen began her Hollywood career, she did not see any role models, she said. “You turn on the television and basically, you don’t see yourself,” Chen said.

Chen did auditions for Michael Cimino’s 1985 film “Year of the Dragon,...

Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci, whose career defined scandal and evoked eroticism and sumptuous beauty, has died of cancer in Rome. The director of Last Tango In Paris was 77 and had been confined to a wheelchair for much of the last 10 years.

A product of Italian New Wave cinema’s golden era, the Parma-born Bertolucci achieved international acclaim, winning the Oscar for Best Director for 1987’s The Last Emperor.

Beginning as a poet, Bertolucci entered film work as a writer for Pier Paolo Pasolini before attracting attention as a director-writer with 1970’s The Conformist, a stylish work that brought him...

Bernardo Bertolucci, the legendary Italian director behind classics such as “Last Tango in Paris” and “The Last Emperor,” has died at age 77. Bertolucci’s publicist, Flavia Shiavi, confirmed the director’s passing on the morning of Monday, November 26. The filmmaker, who had been suffering from cancer, died at his home in Rome, Italy.

Bertolucci was widely considered one of Italy’s greatest auteurs throughout his five decades making films in both Hollywood and Italy. The filmmaker got his start working with another giant of Italian cinema, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Bertolucci was an assistant on Pasolini’s first feature, “Accattone,” before he made his own directorial debut at age 21 with “The Grim Reaper” in 1962. The drama centered around the murder of a Roman prostitute and premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Bertolucci gained recognition in Hollywood following the release of “The Conformist,” which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the release of "Crash" (on May 6, 2005), an all-star movie whose controversy came not from its provocative treatment of racial issues but from its Best Picture Oscar victory a few months later, against what many critics felt was a much more deserving movie, "Brokeback Mountain."

The "Crash" vs. "Brokeback" battle is one of those lingering disputes that makes the Academy Awards so fascinating, year after year. Moviegoers and critics who revisit older movies are constantly judging the Academy's judgment. Even decades of hindsight may not always be enough to tell whether the Oscar voters of a particular year got it right or wrong. Whether it's "Birdman" vs. "Boyhood," "The King's Speech" vs. "The Social Network," "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Shakespeare in Love" or even "An American in Paris" vs. "A Streetcar Named Desire," we're still confirming the Academy's taste or dismissing it as hopelessly off-base years later.

Australian actress Wendy Hughes dead at 61 (photo: Wendy Hughes in ‘Newsfront’) Australian film, television, and stage actress Wendy Hughes, best known internationally for the big-screen dramas My Brilliant Career and Careful, He Might Hear You, died of cancer early today, March 8, 2014, in Sydney. Hughes (born on July 29, 1952, in Melbourne) was 61. Wendy Hughes’ film career kicked off in the mid-’70s, with Tim Burstall’s psychological drama ‘Jock’ Petersen / Petersen (1974), in which she plays the wife of a college professor who becomes romantically involved with a married student (Jack Thompson). "I spent a lot of the time naked and doing sex scenes," Hughes would later recall about her work in ‘Jock’ Petersen, "because in the seventies you all had to do that." In 1979, Hughes landed a key supporting role in the international arthouse hit My Brilliant Career, Gillian Armstrong’s late 19th-century-set tale of an independent-minded young woman (a Katharine Hepburn...

Peter O’Toole: ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ actor, eight-time Oscar nominee dead at 81 (photo: Peter O’Toole as T.E. Lawrence in David Lean’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia’) Stage, film, and television actor Peter O’Toole, an eight-time Best Actor Academy Award nominee best remembered for his performance as T.E. Lawrence in David Lean’s epic blockbuster Lawrence of Arabia, died on Saturday, December 14, 2013, at a London hospital following "a long illness." Peter O’Toole was 81. The Irish-born O’Toole (on August 2, 1932, in Connemara, County Galway) began his film career with three supporting roles in 1960 releases: Robert Stevenson’s Disney version of Kidnapped; John Guillermin’s The Day They Robbed the Bank of England; and Nicholas Ray’s The Savage Innocents, starring Anthony Quinn as an Inuit man accused of murder. Two years later, O’Toole became a star following the release of Lawrence of Arabia, which grossed an astounding $44.82 million in North America back in 1962 (approx.

The Shadow, the template for most of comic books’ mystery men, captured America’s imagination in radio and pulp magazines for decades. His paperback revival in the 1960s and 1970s (the latter with spectacular covers from Steranko) led to his brilliant portrayal by Denny O’Neil and Michael William Kaluta in the short-lived DC Comics adaptation. Currently, he’s cutting down the weed of crime for Dynamite Entertainment but this overlooked gem of a film is worth a look. Here are the official details:

Who knows what evil lurks in the shadow of men? The Shadow knows! Adapted from the long-running classic radio program and Walter B. Gibson’s popular pulp fiction, legendary crime-fighting superhero The Shadow comes to life in the 1994 film adaptation The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) from visionary filmmaker Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction, Highlander). Brimming with non-stop action and suspense, this wildly entertaining cinematic adventure...

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! Adapted from the long-running classic radio program and Walter B. Gibson’s popular pulp fiction, legendary crime-fighting superhero The Shadow comes to life in the 1994 film adaptation The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) from visionary filmmaker Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction, Highlander). Brimming with non-stop action and suspense, this wildly entertaining cinematic adventure also stars John Lone (The Last Emperor), Penelope Ann Miller (Carlito’s Way), Peter Boyle (Everybody Loves Raymond), Ian McKellen (X-Men), Jonathan Winters (The Smurfs) and Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). On February 25, 2014, Shout! Factory will release The Shadow: Collector’S Edition Blu-ray™, featuring new high...

Fans of old time radio will remember The Shadow fondly! People who saw the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston, everyone's favorite crime fighter with supernatural powers... eh... not so much. Has time been kind to this feature film? Only The Shadow knows!

From the Press Release

Who knows what evil lurks in the shadow of men? The Shadow knows! Adapted from the long-running classic radio program and Walter B. Gibson’s popular pulp fiction, legendary crime-fighting superhero The Shadow comes to life in the 1994 film adaptation The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock") from visionary filmmaker Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction, Highlander). Brimming with non-stop action and suspense, this wildly entertaining cinematic adventure also stars John Lone (The Last Emperor), Penelope Ann Miller (Carlito’s Way), Peter Boyle ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), Ian McKellen (X-Men), Jonathan Winters (The Smurfs), and Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

On February 25, 2014, Shout!

The American Film Institute (AFI) today announced additional Centerpiece Galas and Special Screenings – comprised of a world premiere, award season contenders and highly anticipated independent and international films of the fall – for AFI Fest 2013 presented by Audi.

There will be a red carpet Gala each night of the festival.

The additional Centerpiece Galas are August: Osage County (Dir John Wells) on Friday, November 8; The Last Emperor 3D (Dir Bernardo Bertolucci) on Sunday, November 10; and the World Premiere of Lone Survivor (Dir Peter Berg) on Tuesday, November 12.

All Galas will be presented in the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre.

August: Osage County

AFI Fest’s Special Screenings are Her (Dir Spike Jonze); The Invisible Woman (Dir Ralph Fiennes); Jodorowsky’S Dune (Dir Frank Pavich); Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom (Dir Justin Chadwick); The Past (Le PASSÉ) (Dir Asghar Farhadi); Philomena (Dir Stephen Frears); and The Unknown Known: The Life And Times...

Odd List Greg Foster 18 Oct 2013 - 06:16

We look at 20 former A-list actors, and the interesting film choices they've made...

There comes a time in every A-list actor's life when they gather their thoughts and take a step back into smaller budget or more leftfield fare - and for a variety of reasons. They may want to work with a certain director or an emerging directing talent. They might be taken by a fantastic script. They might fancy a new artistic direction. They may even have a spiritual epiphany and decide to eschew Hollywood and all its decadent trappings, or they may simply just not have a choice, since the big roles have long since dried up for them.

The reason for this list then, is to look at some of those shining lights, the household names, and at the films they took up as proof of their artistic integrity.

Welcome to The Best Movie You Never Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time or has aged like a fine wine. This week we’ll be examining The Hunted from writer/director J.F. Lawton (Under Siege) and starring Christopher Lambert, Joan Chen, John Lone, and Yoshio Harada. The Story: While on a business...

Dynamite Entertainment has signed a comprehensive licensing agreement with Conde Nast for comic books based on The Shadow. Arguably the most famous pulp hero of the 20th century and an inspiration for Batman among many others, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips, television, video games, and at least five motion pictures.

“We are pleased and excited to entrust The Shadow to the capable, creative hands of Dynamite Entertainment,” said Jerry Birenz, licensing attorney for Conde Nast. “We look forward to a continuation of the long tradition of The Shadow in comic books, and the enjoying of the new adventures and experiences Dynamite Entertainment will bring us.”

Introduced as a mysterious radio narrator by David Chrisman, William Sweets, and Harry Engman Charlot for Street and Smith Publications, The Shadow was fully developed and transformed into a pop culture icon by pulp writer Walter B. Gibson.

The Shadow...

We start the Top 7. You finish the Top 10.

With M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender (click here for review) opening on July 1 it got me thinking. Movie studios love the word “last.” Can’t get enough. Just this year there’s Miley Cyrus’ The Last Song. The Last Station just came out on DVD. There’s classic bombs like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Last Action Hero, and perhaps the worst of the bunch, The Last Holiday starring Queen Latifah.

Now, let’s talk about the best of the bunch. These are the “Top 7 Movies with the word ‘Last’ in the Title.” As always, I had to make some tough cuts, so those simply make it into the comments section below.

7. The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Recap: A detective (Bruce Willis) and ex-quarterback Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) are thrown together to attempt to solve a murder.

Reason: Writer Shane Black and...

20th Century Fox have picked up the rights to cult classic and pulp superhero, The Shadow, according to Latino Review. The property, which had previously sat at Sony Pictures, was bought for a rumoured million dollars after the studio dropped the rights to the series.

The Shadow, a classic superhero from the 1940’s and a direct influence on modern-day comic book hero’s, has been championed in recent years by “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi, who apparantly has followed the project to Fox. While Raimi was at one point touted to direct the picture, it’s now being said that “30 Days of Night” and “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” director, David Slade may be given the chair. This from ‘la Review:

You see, el problema con el Shadow is simple… he is a rich guy like Bruce Wayne, and his big power? People can’t see him. He isn’t invisible- he hypnotizes them.

Now that director Sam Raimi (Drag Me To Hell, Spiderman) is officially off of Spiderman 4–it seems that Sony has gone with 500 Days of Summer helmer Marc Webb – there’s much speculation in the geek realm about what comes next.

The die-hard Raimi nerds are no doubt clamoring for Evil Dead 4, but in recent weeks it has appeared that the big budget fantasy adaptation of World of Warcraft is going to be Sam’s next project. Today, via the rumor mill, comes word of another project that the director might be putting his hands on soon; The Shadow.

Raimi has been on tap as producer of the new version, being penned by Slavash Farahani, since 2007. Sources are citing however, that he’s now interested in possibly directing the movie himself.

That’s right. If these rumors prove to be true, the man who brought us Spiderman will be taking us...

Though films with substance can be the most memorable, now and then a decent movie that invites you to check your brain at the door can be rewarding. The problem is those types of films have to be somewhat decent and they are getting pretty rare nowadays. The last action film I saw that asked me to throw logic out the window and was still entertaining was Timur Bekmambetov's “Wanted' and since then hyper-kinetic films of the genre have got dumber and dumber. 'Ninja Assassin' is no exception. It's actually one of those movies you want to succeed, because its tough to remember when was the last time we got a decent ninja flick which is a poorly developed genre. I never though I'd write this, but 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' comes to mind and I'm talking the recent CGI version, not men in ridiculous Muppet suits.

Since he emerged out of the psychotronica closet of his first potent but crude features, there have been two fairly distinct David Cronenbergs -- the extremist/obsessive who's been happy to exploit the fleshier anxieties of science fiction and surrealism, and the critic's darling that sprung up around the time of the still-underrated "Crash" (1996), all the easier to laud for having left the icky aspects of genre behind him. Relative to the psychosexual force on exhibition in "Videodrome" (1983), "The Dead Zone" (1983), "The Fly" (1986), "Dead Ringers" (1988) and "Naked Lunch" (1991), it seems to me that "eXistenZ" (1999), "Spider" (2002), "A History of Violence" (2005) and "Eastern Promises" (2007) are both fairly prosaic and predictable, especially in light of the critical handstands they inspired. It's not all as cut and dried as that, of course, but it still leaves "M. Butterfly" (1993) lingering, coyly and enigmatically, right in the middle. Cronenberg fans never warmed to this unsensationalized Broadway adaptation,...

The Last Emperor. (The Criterion Collection, 2008).

Red-carpet DVD producer Criterion does it again with its lavish, four-disk box set release of this Oscar winner from 1987. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, the film is one of two films in Academy history that won all of its nominations in nine categories (Gigi being the other; only one other film won a higher number of nominations without a loss, and that was The Lord of the Rings—the Return of the King). Emperor is a magnificent and intelligent epic about Pu Yi, the last reigning emperor of Imperial China. While full of spectacle on a grand scale, the picture also manages to be an intimate human drama about a young man trapped by historical events out of his control. After all, this was a person who became the emperor of a country at the age of three. Of particular historical cinematic importance is the...

NEW YORK -- The teaming of Jet Li and Jason Statham results in a union that's less than the sum of its parts in War, one of the many entries in the annual late summer B-movie onslaught. Lacking even the galvanizing action sequences that would have compensated for suffering through its formulaic plot, this is a thoroughly forgettable exploitationer that will not enhance its stars' resumes. The film opened Friday without being screened for the press.

The film works in plenty of the familiar elements, from the tough cop out for revenge to the mysterious assassin on a mission to the usual convoluted plot machinations involving the Asian underworld. When the partner and family of FBI agent Crawford (Statham) are brutally murdered, he vows to get revenge on the mysterious assassin who subsequently disappeared. Cut to three years later, when the killer named Rogue (Li) returns to become involved in a turf war between the Chinese Triads and the Japanese yakuzas. About 90 minutes later, the audience finally gets what it came to see, a protracted hand-to-hand combat between the stars.

Unfortunately, that altercation -- edited in the obligatory hyperactive style -- is less than overwhelming, as is everything that has come before it. Although there is plenty of violence on display -- including shootouts, car chases and sword battles -- none of the sequences compare in excitement to virtually anything seen in Li or Statham's oeuvre.

Statham glowers with his usual effectiveness, but has little opportunity to show off his intense charisma. And Li, wearing a slight smirk throughout the entire proceedings, rarely displays the amazing physicality of which he's still clearly capable.

Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley's screenplay attempts to throw in some character-defining quirks -- the cop is afraid of his wife finding out he still smokes, the killer has really organized closets, etc. -- to little effect. And the final would-be surprising revelation, involving a pretty extensive plastic surgery job, is too little, too late.

The supporting cast includes the superb John Lone, here wasted as a crime boss, and Mathew St. Patrick and Andrea Roth, both of whom have been seen to much better effect in their TV gigs on HBO's Six Feet Under and FX's Rescue Me, respectively. One of the film's best unintentional laughs comes with Devon Aoki's ordering some tough guys at gunpoint to get her some salad, fast, with the dressing on the side.

WAR

Lionsgate

Cast:

Director: Philip G. Atwell

Screenwriters: Lee Anthony Smith, Gregory J. Bradley

Producers: Steven Chasman, Christopher Petzel, Jim Thompson

Executive producer: Mike Elliott

Director of photography: Pierre Morel

Production designer: Chris August

Costume designer: Cynthia Ann Summers

Cast:

Rogue: Jet Li

Crawford: Jason Statham

Chang: John Lone

Kira: Devon Aoki

Benny: Luis Guzman

Dr. Sherman: Saul Rubinek

Shiro: Ryo Ishibashi

Running time -- 99 minutes

MPAA rating: R...

With nearly an hour of extra footage, mostly in added shots and small sequences, Bernardo Bertolucci's much-honored "The Last Emperor" is even more impressive in distributor Artisan Entertainment's "original director's cut" -- a sumptuous feast in Los Angeles at the Nuart and for cineastes in San Francisco and Chicago.

Now running 219 minutes (and shown disappointingly without an intermission), this winner of nine Academy Awards including best picture was released in 1987 and boldly portrays the life of Pu Yi with unparalleled access to the Forbidden City, where the young emperor lived for 16 years. Few movies before or since have so successfully combined the showmanship of widescreen filmmaking with rigorous, literate storytelling and delicate psychological characterizations.

Comparing the two versions is startling, with the longer captivating one in a more satisfying, big-movie fashion -- particularly in the first two hours. Along with more exquisitely beautiful scenes from Pu Yi's youth, including the entirely new story of how his beloved wet nurse (Jade Go) came to the Forbidden City, the present version has more details of the lead's harsh transformation through imprisonment and interrogation, including his complex relationship with the prison governor (Ying Ruocheng).

While the cutting between the adult Pu Yi (John Lone) as a war criminal and his coming of age in the turbulent early years of this century is the same in both editions, this preferred length allows one to fully digest the flavors and themes of Bertolucci and Mark Peploe's Oscar-winning screenplay. Historical but dramatic and highlighted by luminous performances (Peter O'Toole, Joan Chen) and breathtaking crowd scenes, "The Last Emperor" is a masterpiece with a few reservations that are not dismissed in either case.

The interrogators themselves hurry up the story by having Pu Yi move on to his involvement with the Japanese in the 1930s and World War II. The provocative Eastern Jewel (Maggie Han) still shows up out of the blue to create a new threesome for the playboy emperor in exile, and the Cultural Revolution, near the ironic conclusion, is not as well-explained as other eras portrayed.

Also winning Academy Awards for direction, editing, art direction, cinematography, costume design, scoring and sound, "The Last Emperor" is without question a tremendously impressive work of entertainment and art that soars on the big screen and makes a handsome home-viewing collector's item.

THE LAST EMPEROR ORIGINAL DIRECTOR'S CUT

Artisan Entertainment

In association with Recorded Picture Co. Hemdale Film Corp.

A Jeremy Thomas production

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Producer: Jeremy Thomas

Screenwriters: Mark Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci

Director of photography: Vittorio Storaro

Production designer: Ferdinando Scarfiotti

Editor: Gabriella Cristiani

Costume designer: James Acheson

Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Cong Su

Color/stereo

Cast:

Pu Yi (adult): John Lone

Wan Jung: Joan Chen

Reginald Johnston: Peter O'Toole

The Governor: Ying Ruocheng

Chen Pao Shen: Victor Wong

Eastern Jewel: Maggie Han

Ar Mo: Jade Go

Running time -- 219 minutes

No MPAA rating...

No one ever saw the Shadow, the radio Mystery Man who first lurked on the scene some 60 years ago, except in their imagination. Now, his alternately sinister and heroic form is fleshed out in high-deco style with Universal's ''The Shadow.'' Stylishly directed by Russell Mulcahy, this witty entertainment will appeal to sci-fi and thriller buffs, but the marketing challenge will be to ''uncloud the vision'' of younger viewers.

''The Shadow'' begins at the pinnacle of hocus-pocus: in Tibet, as evil warlord Ying Ko (Alec Baldwin) is taken captive by a mystic who orders him to ''be redeemed.'' Ying Ko is transformed into Lamont Cranston, a dapper gent, and sent to New York to battle crime and evil. Fortunately for Cranston, the mystic has taught him secret powers of the mind and cloaked him in a new guise -- the Shadow. A dapper man-about-town during the day, Cranston transforms into an ethereal, brim-hatted crime fighter at night.

Even by Big Apple standards, Cranston/the Shadow confronts a lot of rot, not helped any by the supernatural arrival of the last of Genghis Khan's bloodline, Shiwan Khan (John Lone), who senses through the darker side of Cranston/the Shadow a kindred spirit, a potential partner in the conquest and destruction of New York.

Plotwise, ''The Shadow'' is a big spinner, involving development of the atomic bomb and all sorts of municipal madness all squared into another dimension. At times, it spins out of orbit, but it's generally engaging and nicely diced by screenwriter David Koepp's light-handed wit. In general, this ''Shadow'' is more to look at than to listen to. Its chief virtues are on the surface: Joseph Nemec III's ornate art-deco production design as well as the film's wide-ranging special effects are ''The Shadow' '' best features. Director Mulcahy's fast-moving dynamic, aided by cinematographer Stephen H. Burum's rhythmic shots, editor Peter Honess' zesty punctuation and composer Jerry Goldsmith's titanic score, brings necessary bulk to ''The Shadow' '' surface dimension.

As the Shadow, Baldwin is an apt blend of the suave and the sinister, while Lone is outstanding as the megalomaniac force of evil. The supporting players are bright spots, most notably Jonathan Winters as a crotchety police commissioner, Tim Curry as an obsequious turncoat and Peter Boyle as a roisterous cabbie.

THE SHADOW

Universal

A Bregman/Baer Prod.

A Film by Russell Mulcahy

Producers Martin Bregman, Willi Baer, Michael S. Bregman

Director Russell Mulcahy

Screenwriter David Koepp

Based on Advance Magazine Publisher's character ''The Shadow''

Executive producers Louis A. Stroller, Rolf Deyhle

Director of photography Stephen H. Burum

Production designer Joseph Nemec III

Editor Peter Honess

Co-executive producer Stan Weston

Music supervisor Jellybean Benitez

Music Jerry Goldsmith

Costume designer Bob Ringwood

Casting Mary Colquhoun

Sound mixer Keith Wester

Color/Stereo

Lamont Cranston/the Shadow Alec Baldwin

Shiwan Kahn John Lone

Margo LanePenelope Ann Miller

Moe Shrevnitz Peter Boyle

Reinhardt Lane Ian McKellen

Farley Claymore Tim Curry

Barth Jonathan Winters

Dr. Tam Sab Shimono

Running time -- 112 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...