Men of Hard Skin

An oft trod tale of gallantry and heroism - this time given an Oriental scenario as "Dong YiLong" (Henry Lau) and his gang of compatriots compete against nine other warriors in the ultimate, deadly, contest of skill and strategy organised by a neighbouring warlord with an agenda of his own. Actually, as fantasy adventure films go, it is pretty complete: handsome hero, mythical beasties; sword fights; martial arts before a predictable ending. Don't expect anything at all sophisticated here: the effects are straight out of a video game and the dialogue is minimalist but the action scenes redeem it somewhat, and for 2 hours of mindless fun you could do a heck of a lot worse.