Action

Are all relationships based on lies? Jake Bianski runs a fish market in north Boston, surrounded by Italians. For years, he's carried a torch for Isabella, an ex-girlfriend now married with three children and no interest in Jake. Yet, he tells everyone she's his girlfriend, including Marisa, a veterinarian his employees set him up with at the Italian singles club. She's interested in him until he tells her about his girlfriend, then he's persistent in asking her to be his friend.

A bizarre murder mystery brings together the most powerful woman in China, the soon-to-be-Empress Wu Zetian and a formerly exiled detective, Dee Renjie at the infamous Imperial Palace. Hoping he will solve the crime before her coronation, Wu appoints Dee Chief Judge of the Empire and implores him to combine his indisputable wisdom with his unparalleled martial arts skills to save the future of her dynasty.

There's no rule against rock anthems from the 1970s in the soundtrack for a movie about a medieval jousting champion, but if you're going to attempt such jarring anachronisms, you'd better establish acceptable ground rules. Writer-director Brian Helgeland does precisely that in A Knight's Tale and pulls off this trick with such giddy aplomb that you can't help but play along.

Martial arts icons Jackie Chan (Forbidden Kingdom) and Michelle Yeoh (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) are at their absolute peak in this freewheeling, action-packed adventure. A once-in-a-lifetime one-two punch, they team up as a risk-taking cop and a strait-laced but beautiful federal agent, working undercover together to take down an international drug ring. Risking life and limb, Chan and Yeoh perform their own incredible stunts, dangling from a soaring helicopter, leaping onto careening cars, and delivering beat-downs on the roof of a speeding train.

The good news is, Dr. Watson does get married. The bad news is, Sherlock Holmes throws his bride off a moving train. Actually, there's even worse news than that--but all will be explained in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the sequel to Guy Ritchie's 2009 hit. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return to their roles as Holmes and Watson, as the duo take on the world's greatest criminal mind, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), a man whose latest scheme has global implications.

A fast-paced, beautifully executed film, The Rebel works hard at being an epic martial arts picture set in 1920's French-occupied Vietnam. While that may sound like a bit much, director Truc Charlie Nguyen does a formidable job creating a plausible scenario with some awesome fighting sequences. While not quite epic, the film is spot on as an action thriller.

Super-spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has retired from active duty to trains new IMF agents. But he is called back into action to confront the toughest villain he's ever faced - Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an international weapons and information provider with no remorse and no conscience. Hunt assembles his team - his old friend Luther Strickell (Ving Rhames), transportation expert Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and background operative Zhen (Maggie Q), to rescue one of his very own trainees, Lindsey (Keri Russell) who was kidnapped while on a surveillance detail of Davian.

While action legend Jackie Chan's career continues to wane in the United States, he has in recent years enjoyed a revival in his native Hong Kong, and the period-action comedy Little Big Soldier is perhaps the best of those efforts. Set during China's Era of Warring States (roughly 475-221 BC), the story centers on Chan as a farmer-turned-soldier who survives a bloody battle with a valuable prize--a wounded general (Wang Leehom) from the opposing army.

Master swordplay, epic battles and stunning martial arts action kick into high gear in this fantasical adventure set in ancient Korea. 927 A.D. The Killer-Blade Army has toppled the ruling dynasty, plunging the kingdom into chaos. The only remaining heir, Prince Jung-Hyun (Lee Seo Jin) is living in exile, unaware of his family's dark fate. Still loyal to the dynasty, the beautiful and deadly warrior Soha (Yoon Soy) sets out to find Jung-Hyun and guide him to become the great leader he was born to be.

In a young Republic of China, where greedy warlords fuel a period of war and strife, Hou Jie (Andy Lau) arrogantly shows no mercy to his enemies seeking refuge with the benign and compassionate Shaolin monks. After unscrupulously killing a wounded enemy, Hou Jie pays a terrible price for his actions and is forced to seek refuge in the same Shaolin Monastery her blatantly disrespected. Hou Jie's traitorous second-in-command Cao Man (Nicholas Tse) continues where the once-warlord left off, betraying his country and his own people.