When John Woo's massive, thundering return to form, Red Cliff, was released it came out as two massive movies, each running well over two hours. Everywhere but in America, that is. Here in the land of the free, the two movies were chopped and stitched and stapled and cut until they became a two-and-a-half hour Franken-film. But now, on the Fourth of July, the day when we celebrate our freedom, we liberate Red Cliff from motion picture bondage and present it to you the way God - and John Woo - intended: as one massive five-hour motion picture experience.

Based on the greatest scene (the battle of Red Cliff) in the greatest classical work of Chinese literature (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) this is the kind of blood-and-thunder extravaganza that turns boys into men. Put two hundred babies in the cinema and they'll come out with hair on their chests and a burning urge to rescue the weak and defeat the wicked. Idiotic American critics often refer to John Woo as "just" an action director, but that's like saying Van Gogh was "just" a landscape painter. Plenty of people direct action, but few take it to the righteous, sometimes ridiculous, heights that Woo does. Because what he makes aren't action movies, they're love stories. John Woo movies (and Red Cliff is no exception) are always about two men who are halves of a whole, separated by fate, and over the course of the movie they circle warily around one another, gradually coming closer, until they finally unite in a passionate, fiery cataclysm.

The extra running time of Red Cliff allows its characters to breathe and become three dimensional, as subplots re-emerge, adding weight to what was previously just a breathless bunch of battles. Suddenly what was a simple action movie becomes an immersive experience that leaves the audience battered and bruised but also invigorated and renewed, like Imax for your emotions. Red Cliff Uncut is the kind of motion picture experience that you haven't had since Lawrence of Arabia. It's big, smart and undeniably epic.