The Guillotines (2013)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"The Guillotines" is a wu xia movie with a lot of ups and downs. It's certainly interesting for genre fans and better than its reputation but far from being a highlight of the martial arts genre. The movie shows the story of an obsolete secret assassination squad on a dangerous mission whose members face elimination due to the emperor's will to radically revolutionize his empire.On the negative side, this movie is clearly too long. Especially the first part of the movie where the assassination squad is discovering a remote village outpost has noticeable lengths. Another issue is that many of the characters in this squad lack depth or are represented in a childish way which makes it hard for the viewer to identify with them. Despite being a wu xia movie, the fighting scenes are mostly unspectacular and the special weapon of the assassination squad is clearly underused. A debatable issue is the ending of the movie which surprised me in a negative way. Instead of offering a final battle, the movie suddenly tries to offer a philosophical twist which doesn't fit with the rest of the movie.On the positive side, the costumes, settings and soundtrack are what you expect of a solid wu xia production. The opening scene is already visually stunning and includes a few nice special effects that aren't overused throughout the movie. Some characters like the Guillotines members Leng and Musen, rebel leader Wolf, agent Haidu and the Qianlong Emperor have some depth and become more and more authentic and interesting as the movie progresses. Instead of focusing on predictable martial arts fights, this movie tries to innovate things by showing us the downsides of modern Western technology. While the ending of the movie feels somewhat disappointing and out of place, one can't deny that it comes as a surprise and is rather original from an objective point of view.In the end, fans of Chinese action films, period movies and a modern type of wu xia cinema might want to watch this movie once. Those who are expecting a more traditional martial arts film might be disappointed since the movie focuses on fights with cannons, guns and fictional weapons instead of classic daggers or swords. After all, "The Guillotines" is a slightly above average genre flick but nothing more.

This movie offers what would seem to be a remake of "The Master of the Flying Guillotine", even if they put out something akin to it might have been OK. This convoluted mess is not sure what it wants to be a movie? a political statement, a Morality tale? It's none of the above it is a poorly directed and written disaster. The opening scenes offer us some cool if unreal weapons and some nice action. After that you will feel cheated as their isn't any action it's just slaughter whether it be brutal beatings, decapitations, firearms or even flame shooting cannons! The whole thing is a silly mess with no real plot other than these Guillotines being eliminated to get rid of a "stain" to the new Emperor. As if one could remove a stain from Qianlong and he'd come out rosy clean. he being guilty of genocide among other things in his reign. This movie want's to be The Last Emperor meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but comes off more like Shanghai Noon meets 1911. The main characters are decent actors and the dialogue isn't that bad if they would just stop weeping for Five minutes this might have been OK. Ah well I can not recommend enough to not see this film please do yourself a favor and PASS.

Who watched and rated this movie? A bunch of Woody Allen fans? It deserves a better rating than the 4.6 I see today so I must add my two cents. This is a typical kung fu action movie and it delivers kung fu and action. Nothing I haven't seen before but all the stuff I want to keep on seeing. Is there anything that makes it anything more than an average kung fu action movie? No not really, but that still doesn't mean it's a waste of time or something to over criticize. What would have made it better? The running time was too long and there were not enough simple hand to hand or man versus man fights. Other than that, if you are a fan of this genre then ignore the criticism here and watch it.

When the trailers were released, it seemed that The Guillotines will be packed with action with the titular weapon. And with Andrew Lau at helm, what could go wrong? The fact that Andrew wants this to be more of a drama about brothers rather than a guilty pleasure is disappointing. But it is not that bad and this still has some value of entertainment.The story: The movie starts off with a cool action scene with The Guillotines, a group, using the titular weapons against some 'bad guys'. After that, Wolf escapes from being executed. It leads to another action scene with the briefly appeared titular weapons. However that is all you see for the weapons in action. The Guillotines is tasked to find Wolf. Those waiting to see the weapons appearing again will be disappointed. There is plenty of action but the weapons are not featured in other than the first two action scenes. The climax is a huge disappointment. I thought the climax will the next action scene that will feature the weapons. The climax contains lots of explosions and that is about it. No epic fight scene. Acting wise is okay, not distracting.Overall: It should not be called The Guillotines. It is one of those misleading title. Without the special titular weapon, this is just an ordinary action drama movie which feels over-long at times. It is not bad but it is a disappointment.