Action Movies 2004 List

With Kiichi Nakai • Zhao Wei • Jiang Wen • Wang Xueqi • Hasi Bagen • He Tao • Harrison Liu • Wang Deshun • Yang Haiquan • Yeerjiang Mahepushen • Zhou Yun • He Ping • Wang Zhongiun

Set in the ferocious Gobi Desert, the story follows two protagonists, Lieutenant Li (Jiang Wen) and Japanese emissary Lai Qi (Kiichi Nakai) - both first-class warriors and master swordsmen. After decades of service to the Chinese Emperor, Lai Qi longs to return to Japan, but is instead sent to the West to chase wanted criminals. His only passport back to Japan is to capture and execute Lieutenant Li, a renegade soldier wanted for leading a violent mutiny when he refused orders to kill female and child prisoners. Li and Lai Qi battle, but finally agree to delay their final personal fight until the caravan carrying Minzhu and a Buddhist monk is brought to safety. The monk, however, is carrying a sacred and powerful pagoda that attracts the attention of the region's ruthless overlord, Master An (Wang Xueqi). Lai Qi and Lt. Li, accompanied by Li's former posse of soldiers, who have forsaken their peaceful new lives to return to his side, must face the cruelty of the desert, the region's barbaric bandits and the brutality of the overlord's men before they can finally face one another.

With Milla Jovovich • Thomas Kretschmann • Sienna Guillory • Matthew G. Taylor • Don Carmody • Bernd Eichinger • Zack Ward • Jeremy Bolt • Oded Fehr • Eric Mabius • Samuel Hadida • Paul Anderson • Paul W S Anderson

After escaping a secret corporate facility overrun by the undead, Alice finds herself roaming the streets in the heart of the ravaged and deserted Racoon City. She has been subjected to biogenetic experimentation by the vast Umbrella Corporation and becomes genetically altered, with super-human strengths, senses and dexterity. These skills, and many more, will be needed if anyone is to stay alive.

With Angelina Jolie • Casey Affleck • Jude Law • Giovanni Ribisi • Gwyneth Paltrow • Bai Ling • Jon Avnet • Kerry Conran • Sadie Frost • Marsha Oglesby

Famous scientists around the world have mysteriously disappeared and Chronicle reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) along with ace aviator Sky Captain (Jude Law) are on the investigation. Risking their lives as they travel to exotic places around world, can the fearless duo stop Dr. Totenkopf, the evil mastermind behind a plot to destroy the earth? Aided by Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie), commander of an all-female amphibious squadron, and technical genius Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), Polly and Sky Captain may be our planet's only hope.

With Akio Ôtsuka • Atsuko Tanaka • Kôichi Yamadera • Tamio Ôki • Yutaka Nakano • Naoto Takenaka • Mamoru Oshii • Mitsuhisa Ichikawa

After nine years, acclaimed writer/director Mamoru Oshii follows up his cult hit "Ghost in the Shell"—one of the biggest animé successes of all time—with the long-awaited sequel "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence". It is the year 2032 and the line between humans and machines has been blurred almost beyond distinction. Humans have forgotten that they are human and those that are left coexist with cyborgs (human spirits inhabiting entirely mechanized bodies) and dolls (robots with no human elements at all). Batou is a cyborg. His body is artificial: the only remnants left of his humanity are traces of his brain…and the memories of a woman called The Major. A detective for the government's covert anti-terrorist unit, Public Security Section 9, Batou is investigating the case of a gynoid—a hyper-realistic female robot created specifically for sexual companionship—who malfunctions and slaughters her owner. As Batou delves deeper into the investigation, questions arise about humanity's need to immortalize its image in dolls. The answers to those questions lead to the shocking truth behind the crime...and quite possibly the very meaning of life.