Wow. Was not expecting all the whiners to be the only comments. It's a shame too
This movie was GREAT!!!

First, let me say you can't expect it to be a comedy/kung fu movie. Chan was tired of being type cast and he does a tremendous job playing one of China's folklore heroes.

Next it's often hard for "westerners" to understand that the Chinese and Japanese culture have written history going back much further, because they didn't destroy written history from one dynasty to the next. The events this is based on occurred during the Han dynasty under Emperor Yuan. His formal decrees, referenced at the end of the movie, are still archived in China. So we know the Roman soldiers did in fact help defend the West gate Wild Geese city. Whether Huo An and General Lucius became friends or enemy of my enemy is hard to know, but warriors even today often respect those they fight with even if not friends.

You have to go into this movie knowing it's based on facts that are in historical record and in Chinese folklore. You also have to go into it knowing it's not a kung fu movie, or at least like me, realize very quickly that's not what it is. After that though, wow. This is sleeper hit. Brody is great. Chan is actually surprisingly good in the dramatic role and deserves respect for this. And Cusack? Probably one of his best performances in decades.

If I have one complaint. The memory flashbacks to explain away some of the movie is well done and I normally don't like that. I think I might have made the movie longer and done it in whole, but then you really wouldn't get in 50-48 BC how alliances were not necessarily clear. News didn't travel even close to how it did in the last century let alone now.