Metacritic-Rezensionen

This irrepressibly action-packed adventure may be based on a computer program, but it gets its real kick from martial- arts acrobatics, comic-book-vivid art direction, and a future-shock vision inspired by The Road Warrior, Robocop, and Escape From New York. What 12-year-old could resist?

This Gramercy release, expertly aimed at youthful audiences, is another instance of an exceedingly elementary plot played against production design and special effects of awe-inspiring imagination and sophistication.

On screen, Wolf and Dacascos have a remarkable chemistry. They bounce cheesy lines off of one another like they were reciting Shakespeare or Tarantino or whatever passes for great writing these days. Both are surprisingly good actors. Unfortunately, there are no further surprises.

MTV veteran and first-time director Jim Yukich makes the most of the flashy if uneven visual effects, which usually have a state-of-the-art quality but occasionally look as phony as matte paintings in 1950s biblical epics. [04 Nov 1994, p.I39]

Although these scene-setting futuristic details have some humorous promise, "Double Dragon," the movie they embellish, is an incoherent children's adventure based on a popular video game.

A Ninja turtle soup of computer gimmicks, karate chops and kiddie Confucianism.

Perhaps if you are a Sega-head or Nintendo freak, and your mission in life is to rack up awesome scores on Double Dragon, you may find this loud and tedious movie more enjoyable than I did. But I doubt it. [04 Nov 1994, p.M]

Even kids won't get much of a kick out of this high-energy, low-IQ futuristic slugfest, which plays down to, and in many ways, below the level of some Saturday-morning cartoons.

While not as ponderous and overblown as STREET FIGHTER, another video game-based 1994 movie, DOUBLE DRAGON is depressingly lightweight, making constant and unnecessary concessions to youthful audiences at the expense of any real bite or impact.

If all this sounds totally awesome, you're probably already an afficionado of the Sega- and Nintendo-licensed products from which director Jim Yukich's movie has been cloned. And you may be brain-dead as well, which would certainly enhance your enjoyment of his picture. [11 Nov 1994, p.L29]