The Last Dragon
There are plenty of bad movies out
there, piss poor scripts, actors, effects, etc. all rolled into one
big log of crap that played out on a movie screen only to be walked
out on. But then there are bad movies where the entertainment aspect
somehow makes them a worth while watch. I refer to them as Great Bad
Movies and they become cult classics with a hefty fan base. Now
sometimes a company will try to make a bad movie to purposefully fall
into that category which usually leads to an abysmal failure that
nobody will ever remember. For a truly Great Bad Movie it has to be
something that the people making it thought would be an actual great
movie. A film they thought would rake in some bucks, get some decent
reviews and be remembered fondly. But what they make is something
else entirely. The Last Dragon is one of those movies.
Delphi III and Motown Productions
thought they were making pure gold. Mixing the martial arts craze
(which was actually starting to decline at this time) with the music
video craze. Centered around a young martial arts student named Leroy
Green, played by Tiamak, in his search for 'The Master' to begin his
next level of training. Mixing it up with a street gang leader named
Sho'nuff, a company ass named Eddie Arkadian and a host of others
obstacles along the way. Not to mention being romanced by a girl
named Laura and harassed by his own brother at the same time.
The plot is pretty thin. Sho'nuff wants
to beat him for street cred, Eddie is after Laura and his little
brother is just doing what younger siblings do. The bad guys
eventually team up and Leroy has to fight his way through a final
battle, win the girl and get his brother to respect him a bit. But
the story isn't what really sells the movie.
Sho'nuff steals the movie. Every single
scene actor Julius Carry is in he is the centerpiece despite anything
else going on. The Shogun of Harlem is a scenery chewing, over the
top, snarlfest of awesomeness. His entourage of gang members parade
behind him wearing similar outfits reminding us all of The Warriors
various medley of street thug designs. They are the bad guys without
a doubt but you can't help but to want them on the screen more and
more as the movie goes on.
Throughout you get music and plenty of
eye candy shots of Laura played by singer Vanity. Eddie Arkadian,
played by Christopher Murney, tries to get in there and ramp up his
role but falls short of even becoming memorable by the time the
credits roll. Leroy's entire family makes an appearance along with
their hip eighties pizza parlor. Hell we even get to see the main
character teach a bunch of wanna be street toughs how to play
hop-scotch. Oh and we get to see somebody eating popcorn with
chopsticks. How could you pass this up?
Not going to lie, I own this bad boy
and it will never leave my movie library. For anybody who loves some
eighties cheese piled onto some just fun to watch action without
having to think very much at all... this movie is for you.
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Will somebody tell Leroy to take that thing off his head?
Although THIS is a sequel I would have loved to seen.
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