Tai Chi 0 2012

Rachel Saltz, New York Times: Fast and mostly fun, the movie also seems compulsively too much, throwing everything it can think of at you, lest it fail to entertain. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: "Zero" is the first part of a trilogy. Part two, titled "Tai Chi Hero," is due in January. The legend is off to a promising start. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The story's fundamentals are solid, and the battles between this village of kung fu experts and an army of 19th century technophiles are so good that the inevitable sequel (already in the works) will be welcome. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: For all its playfulness and cameo one-shots ("Lung Siu-lung, '70s kung fu superstar"!), Fung's film represents a thundering dead end. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The cross-cultural, steampunk, martial arts/comic-book Sino-Anglo mash-up...[is]visually entertaining. But...its considerable charms may prove exhausting before its relatively brief, 95-minute run time is over. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: "Tai Chi Zero" is often more distracting than diverting with its everything-goes aesthetic - there are strains of steampunk, manga and silent film comedy, with video-game touches. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Fung is enjoying himself so much that he doesn't want the movie to end - and his delight is infectious. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: "Tai Chi Zero" is loads of fun to watch, especially a battle in which watermelons, bananas and other fruits and veggies serve as flying weapons. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: Tai Chi Zero, the first film in a planned trilogy, will leave hard-core fight enthusiasts wanting. But it's a droll, pleasant diversion all the same. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Exhausting to watch, Tai Chi Zero is all flash and little substance. Read more

Matt Singer, Time Out: If director Stephen Fung's frenetic visual style is the Red Bull in this cinematic cocktail, then the dozy plotting is the vodka-leaving you feeling momentarily excited but ultimately narcotized. Read more

Jonathan Kiefer, Village Voice: Give some points to a genre flick whose style mash-up reflects uneasy relations between Asia and the West just as its fracas-intensive plot tries to dramatize them. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: A martial-arts adventure with more video-game and comic-book DNA than the traditional kung fu flick, "Tai Chi Zero" is good, if empty-headed, fun. Read more