When the future empress Wu Zetian's two courtiers die in a mysterious fire, she gets Di Renjie, a former detective and rebel, released from prison to solve the mystery of the fire.
It is a peculiar conflation of history -- there really was an Empress Wu -- and pure cinematic fantasy.
– Richard Nilsen,
Arizona Republic,
29 Sep 2011
rotten:
By the end, with the running time pushing past the two-hour mark, it's reasonable to ask: Just who are these people?
– John Hartl,
Seattle Times,
26 Sep 2011
fresh:
Detective Dee is the action flick of the year, a two-hour epic that blows the Pirates of the Caribbean to the Bermuda Triangle.
– Stephen Cole,
Globe and Mail,
23 Sep 2011
rotten:
"Dee" doesn't shoot for the gravitas of Zhang Yimou's "Hero." It doesn't approach that film's magnificent sensory impact, either, or the artistic romanticism that made "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" such a success here.
– John DeFore,
Washington Post,
23 Sep 2011
fresh:
Three decades into his career, Tsui Hark stands as one of the movies' great entertainers, displaying a dancer's sense of rhythm and movement and manipulating physical space with an abandon worthy of Chuck Jones.