Eschewing the slow rollout that eventually built Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon into the most successful foreign language release ever, Miramax is opening the similarly epic Jet Li martial arts saga, Hero, in more than 2,000 theaters this weekend. 

Given the fact that American audiences have been slow to warm up to foreign language films, Miramax's strategy has to be something of a gamble, though Hero has already been a major success in Asia (where it has earned $130 million) and the film, which also stars Zhang Ziyi (from Crouching Tiger), has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from American critics (35 positive to only 2 negative is the current count on the Rotten Tomatoes site).

Fans of martial arts films will not be disappointed in Hero and those who enjoyed the lyrical and epic qualities of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will also likely look with favor on Hero, which in spite of its somewhat generic title is very distinctive motion picture that is sure to be classed among the best in its genre.  For retailers the film provides an added bonus in that Comicsone has released a full color adaptation of the film (see 'Hero Comes to Comicsone') that is currently available from both Diamond Comic Distributors and FM International.