This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Cao, a power-hungry eunuch, is attempting to create his own evil regime beyond the gaze of the Emporor. When Minister of Defence Yang threatens to reveal Cao's plans, he is executed; his two children are spared so that they can be used as bait to lure Yang's allies into a trap.A band of brave rebels manage to rescue the children, and ride out to The Dragon Gate Inn, a refuge in the desert which is run by brigands. Here they plan their next move, aware that Cao and his followers are hot on their trail...Having seen some clips of this film on TV and been impressed with the sheer craziness of what I had witnessed, I laid down my hard earned cash for what I hoped would be a prime slice of mad Wuxia action; with Donnie Yen, Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin all starring in this Tsui Hark produced epic, I figured this was going to be something special. But an hour in and I was starting to wonder if I had got the wrong film.Fight fans will be sorely disappointed since the martial arts scenes are so poorly edited that they become confusing and once the characters reach the inn there is next to no action for quite a while; in the meantime we get to watch some rubbish about visitors to the inn being turned into pork buns (a la The Untold Story) and Maggie Cheung unsuccessfully tries it on with Tony Leung.The crazy action eventually kicks in when Cao's army arrive at the inn. There is a brief fight in the inn which results in a nice bit where someone gets crushed between two mill stones and a gratuitously gory battle in the desert in which everyone gets injured or killed. If the whole affair had been as deliriously barmy as the final 20 minutes then Dragon Gate Inn would have been a classic rather than just another average kung-fu movie.

I can't believe anyone could actually like this rubbish.Picture and sound quality make it look like a 1930's b-movie and that goes for the acting as well.The story such as it is could have been written be a scriptwriter from the teletubbies and going by the dialogue it was.The fight scenes move so quick you don't know whats going on half the time and the sound effects of the swords sound like someone pulling a zip up and down and as for the final 10 minutes were it turns into a comedy horror,well the least said the better.A truly awful movie.

DRAGON INN exibits the same great production values of every Tsui Hark film. It's a good movie all around, with some truly enjoyable performances by a stellar cast.What both makes and breaks it is the shaky balance between the bulk of the film and its climax. The first 95% is rock solid. The last 5% goes off the deep end, in a crazy, supernatural gorefest fight between Donnie Yen and the varied protagonists. Film school diehards will want their money back. HK film fanatics will sit there in astonishment for a few moments -- then start laughing and cheering. It's truly insane, and I love it.My only knock: not enough Donnie Yen.But there are other films for that.

This is definitely the DVD to own...(being completely disappointed and disgusted with "Ashes of Time" by Kar-wai Wong), "Dragon Inn" a film credited to Hark Tsui has restored my faith in action/martial arts fantasy films. Stunning cinematography, interesting and engaging storyline, and something that most other movies seem to lack and that is a general depth and interest for the characters. In "Dragon Inn" we actually feel and care about the protagonist and his love, and the third pawn, the beautiful owner of the Dragon Inn.The sword fighting scene is spectacular. Every movement is "balletic" in the sense of being graceful and streaming. The inclusion of "traditional period-piece music" in the scenes was euphonic. The special effects were dazzling. The cast is indeed talented, how many people out there can actually do both acting and being athletic. The triangular aura between Brigitte, Maggie and Tony ignites a spark all on its own whether its Brigitte and Tony or Maggie and Tony or even Brigitte with Maggie...its almost Freudian. Lots of action films lose their audience because the ending becomes all too predictable. The action in Dragon Inn does not disappoint and doesn't lose any integrity with the audience from the beginning to the finale. Furthermore, the power of the Dragon Inn is that suddenly we realize that we are connected...Wow...