Trevor Johnston Radio Times Aug 18, 2026 4/5

It's undeniably a long haul, but there's enough derring-do and epic sweep here to carry the audience along regardless.

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Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review Aug 30, 2023 2/4

The prestige of the story doesn’t forgive the fact that John Woo lost his edge years ago, and that’s fully evident in every frame of this overlong epic.

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Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com Sep 21, 2020 3.5/4.0

Tony Leung is powerful and involving as a sort of peaceful, poetic warrior who largely serves as the film's heroic figure.

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Eileen Jones The eXile Oct 30, 2018

The star, Tony Leung, isn't even handsome, but he's got this wonderful, intelligent, melancholy expression that's worth more than all the handsome there is.

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Christoph Huber Cinema Scope Oct 9, 2017

... its structure and satisfactions are more conventional, but the overall conception is as remarkable.

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Louis Proyect rec.arts.movies.reviews Jul 27, 2012

Thank god that Woo left Hollywood. This is the masterpiece he was destined to make.

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Hank Sartin Time Out Nov 18, 2011 3/5

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Joshua Rothkopf Time Out Nov 17, 2011 3/5

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Simon Abrams House Next Door Mar 29, 2011

Cleaner and probably more rewatchable than Red Cliff 2.

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J. Hoberman Village Voice Jun 29, 2010

The director's magnum opus.

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Sean Axmaker Seanax.com Mar 30, 2010

... a magnificent military epic with the scale of Lord of the Rings and the grand visual majesty of the recent wave of Chinese historical epics...

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Annlee Ellingson Moving Pictures Magazine Mar 25, 2010

After years of civil war, Prime Minister General Cao Cao attempts to unite the empire under the Han Dynasty by quashing two troublesome warlords.

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Rob Thomas Capital Times (Madison, WI) Mar 12, 2010 2.5/4

It's like the most complicated game of Stratego ever. Still, if you used to while away Saturday afternoons watching martial arts epics on cable, you'll have a good time.

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Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle Jan 22, 2010 3/5

You may have the biggest flat-screen DLP monitor in the city, but Red Cliff will never look half as spectacular as it will on the big -- and I mean really big -- screen.

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Rene Rodriguez Miami Herald Jan 1, 2010 3/4

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Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Dec 28, 2009 86/100

John Woo's best work has always been mysterious to me. He makes operas - we don't need to understand the words to sense their power.

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Dec 15, 2009 B

It's not top-notch Woo, but it's also not Hollywood so-so Woo.

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Keith Cohen Entertainment Spectrum Dec 12, 2009 3.5/4

This is one of the best foreign language films of 2009. Woo demonstrates a storytelling style of swiftness and grandeur that has been compared to the samurai classics of Akira Kurosawa.

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Maggie Lee The Hollywood Reporter Dec 11, 2009

A formidable prelude to an epic battle with resplendent effects and action spectacles.

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Robert W. Butler Kansas City Star Dec 11, 2009 2.5/4

As drama Red Cliff is overwrought. As spectacle, though, John Woo's latest is the real thing, an old-fashioned cast-of-thousands collision of armies.

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