Bridge of Dragons

Before ordering this movie, I read a number of reviews and decided it would be perfect for a warm summer evening. I was right.

After watching it tonight, I feel compelled to comment.

Yes, this is a mindless action film, and it's pure Dolph Lundgren! The villains are exceptionally villainous, and the heroine is exquisitely beautiful and dangerous! I bought it on line for $2.65 in a VHS version, and after watching it, I've decided to look for an economical DVD. I want to watch it on wide screen.

There are plenty of explosions, and and more than the usual number of bad guys getting shot and falling onto things.

As I said, "pure Dolph Lundgren".

Buy it cheap and enjoy it well!

There are lots of people out there who cannot appreciate a 'bad movie'. When the plot is thinner the air at the top of Mt. Everest and reality doesn't affect the physics/physiology (i.e. kicks that send people dozens of feet and recovering from being shot in a day) then you have a 'bad movie'. This was a good 'bad movie' in that if you can get past the plot problems and cliches, it is a very enjoyable movie.

Oh, and if you are the type of person who notices (and are annoyed by) things like the ruling people being asian (the general and princess) and everyone else being white, or the fact that injuries heal miraculously, then you probably want to steer clear. But if you can rise about such things (or better yet laugh at them) then you will enjoy this movie.

Bridge of Dragons is an Action Movie that would be categorized as a "B" movie. It is low budget, poorly scripted, and the thespians are so wooden that it reminds me of talking cardboard cutouts.

Actually Dolph Lundgren gives the "best" performance which is amusing in its own right. The story revolves around a princess, played by the sexy Valerie Chow, whose parents were murdered by the evil General who wants to marry her. You know he is evil because he never smiles, except when killing somebody and all of his vehicles have "666" marked on them. It is little hints like this that let you know he is EVIL!!! Anyhow his number one soldier is Warchild played by Lundgren, who is the huge, imposing super soldier, who inspite of his tremendous size is extremely hard to hit with bullets, even at point blank range. He uses a gun that never runs out of ammunition.

The princess escapes her would be husband and runs off to the forest to find the rebel camp and overthrow him. The General sends Lundgren in hot pursuit. Lundgren saves the Princess from some extra's that look like they are out of the cast of "Deliverance" and then rescues her again from two gypsy types. He then turns on the General and helps Princess Halo rally the rebels with his best friend played by Gary Hudson.

The bad guys wear Nazi style uniforms and the General himself is like a World War II comic book character called Jap-A- Nazi. He is Asian, but wears a Nazi style uniform. The movie has all ethnic types in it so it shows that although they live in a world suffering from a Holocaust, everybody pulled through.

Needless to say, the movie is hilarious because it tries so hard to be serious. The dialogue is really dumb. Valerie Chow retired from Acting and went back to Hong Kong to model. She is an incredibly beautiful woman, but I can see why she left Hollywood after watching this. She has the potential to be an Action Star in her own right if she would pick the right parts, plus improve her acting.

Bridge Of Dragons' biggest appeal is the setting; a post-apocalyptic world which bears little resemblance to your Mad Maxes and instead, resembles a medieval/feudal society, only one where everyone is armed with machine guns.

Dolph Lundgren stars as Warchild, the loyal soldier to the villainous General Ruechang (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa). Keen to become King, Ruechang has arranged a marriage with Princess Halo (Valerie Chow), but she's not exactly infatuated with him. When she skips town on their wedding day, Warchild is dispatched to find and bring her back, but he winds up falling in love with her. Soon, he's questioning his loyalties and wondering if perhaps Ruechang is more villainous than he believed. And to be quite honest, it's a miracle he didn't notice how evil his boss was earlier, given that all his soldiers are dressed like the Wehrmacht and fly around in helicopters with '666' printed on the side.

This medieval-with-AK47s setting and the well-executed fight scenes are enough to make Bridge Of Dragons worthwhile. It's definitely a low-budget movie; most of this new world resembles the countryside in Eastern Europe, the camera cuts away from the all important helicopter-explosion and I'm fairly certain the same stuntmen were killed about three times over. It also gets a bit contrived; Warchild recovers from a bullet wound in a single day, Jeeps are able to sneak up silently on rebel encampments and I don't think anyone ever needs to reload a weapon.

However the fight scenes are well executed, the setting is unique and action junkies will be pleased to know the body count is massive. Bridge Of Dragons reeks of cheese, but seeing Lundgren rampage through an army of goons is always worth a watch. He's been in some stinkers in his time but this is one of the more interesting films from his direct-to-video offerings. No idea why it's called Bridge Of Dragons though, there isn't a bridge or dragon to be seen.

Bridge of Dragons is more of a rebel movie. Not your everyday rebel movie but its still very good. Bridge of dragons is very entertaining, unlike Boring Dragonheart, this movie keeps making you ask one question, whats gonna happen now? Bridge of Dragons is an exciting flick that deserves a great audience, this is my absolute favorite movie, and I highly recommend it to anyone.