"The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring," the first in the trilogy, was an action epic that played most strongly to males in their teens and 20's.

Joel Silver, the producer of such action epics as "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon," even called the actor's "very good and very frightening Hollywood agents" to ask the essential question: "Can Hugh Grant carry a gun?"

Of course there will be many more CGI-based action epics, but never again one this bloated, excessive, incomprehensible, long (149 minutes) or expensive ($200 million).

In his review, Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars (out of four), writing: "An action epic with the spirit of the Hollywood swordplay classics and the grungy ferocity of 'The Road Warrior'."

In an e-mail message, Sir Ridley, better known as the director of broad-brush action epics like "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down," said he found the books' characters fascinating.

AGES 10-12 Many in this group will want to see Mr. Gibson in his latest action epic, but the violence should rule it out.

Its English title is a reference to King Hu's 1971 action epic A Touch of Zen, one of the most influential wuxia films.

Last year the company also made "Carnosaur 3: Primal Species," an action epic about dinosaurs run amok that may copy "Jurassic Park" but doesn't look half bad for maybe one-hundredth of the cost.

In his latest action epic, "Rumble in the Bronx," Asia's box-office king, Jackie Chan, heroically leaps from a bridge and onto a moving Hovercraft in hot pursuit of a gang of kidnappers.

"Boday feels like the star of an action epic that will live forever," she said with awe, and, with Crim, they made their way, wall by wall and door by door, out and into the hall and then down.