Shadow of the Dragon

The film concerns a near future when the World Health Organization prohibits globally on all human cloning . However a discovery creates genetically engineered . Nova Corporation hires to Madsen (Sam Bottoms), a tough bounty hunter with bad liver . He sets off in pursuit Takeru (Funaki) , a perfect ninja clone with extraordinary strength and agility . He has been created by a scientist named Dr Oh(Pat Morita) , Madsen must destroy Oh's lab about replication of enhanced human beings and any clones and the killer Ninja . But the laboratory explodes and Tareku on the loose . Madsen is helped by the lovely Dr. Foster (Alexandra Kemp) and taking on another Doctor who is developing the Alpha phase project containing 256 live specimen failed prototypes with physical deformation and mental incapacitation . The Doctor creates a new perfect killing machine , as disposal required , a teen named Kismet, a miraculous advance in slickness and intelligence . Meanwhile , a gunrunner (Fred Williamson) hands over Madsen weapons and Ninja arms such as Shuriken and Katana .

The picture is a low budget actioner with suspense , spectacular fights , and crude violence . The movie displays nice choreographic struggles with punches and kicks and sensational bounds and leaps by the killer Ninja . Wooden acting by Sam Bottoms, an actor whose career began splendidly (Apocalypse now , Bronco Billy) but failed , continuing with television movies ; plus , Alexandra Kemp , a German actress playing several B films (Sumuru , Dracula 3000 , Space travesty) , furthermore Noriyuki Pat (Pat Morita of Karate Kid, recently deceased) , Fred Williamson , a Blaxploitation King and a child played Taylor Lautner . The motion picture was regularly directed by Yokoyama , an usual stunts coordinator and habitual director of Power Rangers episodes . Rating : Mediocre but some moments result to be entertaining.

Why did I rent this, you ask? I was hoping for a new martial arts hero. Boy, was I wrong! There are not enough words in the great American thesaurus for me to describe how dreadful this was. Acting was worse than a pornographic film and the action was lame. I suffered through the 90 minute, straight-to-video release and almost threw the disc out my window! Guess I'll be sticking to Chan & Li for the time being.

In the beginning of the story, it reminds me about the movie Karate Kid, because of Pat Morita. He died so soon in the movie. There are lots of scene that are not so convincing. In times that Madsen, the bounty hunter, was already down and helpless, Takero, who has the opportunity to kill the man who killed his creator, just walked away. Anyway, Takero's reluctant to kill Madsen is one of the factor that lead them to battle Kismet. 7/10

While Japanese filmmakers seem to be losing their penchant for stiff atmospheres in movies, as this film suggests, there's still a lot of work to be done - at least for these particular Japanese filmmakers! Now, the stunt and fight scenes *are* spectacular, with ingenious use of wirework showing amazing stuff that even CGI can't do. However, the screenplay is unbelievably bad, even by comic book movie standards. We have characters who are just a step removed from real cartoon characters (check Morita's wild-haired and chortling scientist character!), sometimes spouting incredibly moronic dialogue. The story is a slow-moving, often illogical mess with some dumb plotting - like how Bottoms' character is told to track down one character, and the next scene has found him - with *no* explanation as to how he found him! Bottoms, by the way, is a real poor choice for an aging mercenary character, unconvincing even when simply shooting a gun. It doesn't help that his character is completely unlikable, even though he's the lead. Williamson is a welcome presence, though like Morita, he's only in the movie for five minutes! Had he been cast in the lead, playing his often-used Jesse Crowder character, without doubt it would have been easier to sit through.

I gave this movie a chance. At times I was entertained but at other moments all I could think was "What were they thinking?". I really liked Masakatsu Funaki. He reminds me of Sho Kosugi, my idol in the 80s. OK so Funaki is a lot more buff than Sho ever was. This is the first film I've seen him in. According to his profile he's a pro wrestler in Japan. I hope he makes more movies in the U.S..

The story made little sense. At times I was ready to fall asleep. The only thing that saved it for me was the kickass action, care of Funaki. I would be awesome to see him do some cool modern day ninja flicks. For a buff guy he can move pretty quick. Another kickass person in this flick is young Taylor Lautner. This little guy only has one scene but wow I was impressed,and I've been in martial arts for 25 years. Back to the sucky story. At one point the heroes have to fight these mutants,but they look and act like zombies. What's that all about? The Bottoms character is suppose to be dying and needs a liver. By the end of this movie I wanted him to just die already. Like I said. The action is the only thing that made it worth watching. If your not a martial arts fan, you may not like it.