Benny Chan's 2011 Lunar New Year epic martial arts picture is the latest take on a long-running mainstay of Hong Kong and Chinese kung fu films: the burning of the Shaolin Temple. Nit-pickers may have an aneurysm after being subjected to the historical inaccuracies presented here, but for pure popcorn entertainment for the masses, you can't go wrong with Shaolin.

The movie is a very loose retelling of some of the events surrounding China's "warlord period", occurring in 1916, some four years after the last emperor was unseated. This led to a time of extreme instability and civil war, as various regional military leaders tried to take control of the country as a whole.

Shaolin focuses on one of these warlords, Hou Jie (Andy Lau), who is on his way to becoming China's next leader until he is betrayed by his second-in-command, Cao Man (Nicholas Tse). With his daughter killed and wife gravely injured, Hou takes refuge inside of the Shaolin Temple, and eventually learns to give up his violent ways. But Cao Man isn't willing to let his old mentor live in peace, and leads an assault on the temple.

Like many of Benny Chan's films, there is nothing egregiously wrong going on here. However, one of Chan's biggest faults as a director is perhaps not being as efficient as he could be in the editing room, and we have another example of this in Shaolin, namely through Jackie Chan's character, a cook in the temple. Some promotional materials have Chan front and center as one of the stars of the movie, but he's really more of a supporting character that's not important to the story in any way, shape, or form.

It's Lunar New Year stunt casting at its' finest. Sure, Jackie's one action scene is fun -- even though the prop-heavy fighting doesn't mesh with the other action scenes -- but as Shaolin runs well over two hours (which is seemingly the norm for productions aimed at Mainland audiences) there is certainly room for trimming here and there, and Jackie's scenes, as unfortunate as it sounds, coming from a huge fan of his work like myself, are the most obvious ones that shout have hit the cutting room floor.

As plodding, blase, and pandering as some of the exposition scenes are -- especially those featuring the mandatory evil foreigner character, who is essayed by a gweilo so wooden and bland, he comes off like a reject from a Billy Mays infomercial -- the action sequences shine and go a long way to making the audience forget about the film's shortcomings. Helmed by three action directors, including the legendary Corey Yuen, the fights in Shaolin clearly and firmly show that there's still a bit of life to be found for action fanatics when it comes to Hong Kong and Chinese cinema.

RATING: 7