The Flying Guillotines 2012

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The blades fly as do the heads, but the movie remains disappointingly aground. Read more

Maggie Lee, Variety: The lack of rip-roaring martial arts or even a half-decent storyline will leave genre aficionados feeling short-changed. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: The Guillotines expends most of its energy in its first 30 minutes, leaving the audience with roughly 90 minutes of soapy Qing Dynasty fan fiction. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: A historical action epic set during the Qing dynasty that amounts to a bait-and-switch for wuxia fans stoked for steel-meets-flesh mayhem. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The plot is of little importance - the spectacular action and gorgeous landscapes and costumes are what matter. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: All the solemnity is deadly: Not one of these superhuman gang members registers in memory, and you feel stiffed on gory giggles. Talk about having your chain yanked. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: A corny saga of social and generational conflict, it's ultimately yet another Chinese period epic that functions as a thinly veiled treatise on the nobility of socialist equality. Read more