Latin Dragon

Love the action and the storyline based on the realities of Latinos. I especially like how the star of the movie (Fabian Carrillo) keeps his composure throughout the movie until the end when he explodes into action. Also, how he enters as a positive role model and exits with respectful simplicity. His fighting style brings a fresh mixture of "cool" and "reality". Can't wait to see him in action again in another movie!

Also, great cast for this type of movie... Gary Busey was a perfect bad guy and Lorenzo Lamas was interesting as Gary's henchman. Robert LaSardo, who plays Paco was a perfect fit and his love scene was steamy. The only weak link in the movie was Joyce Giraud who played Claudia. James Hong gave a great performance and the gang members were very scary...

When is the comic book and part 2 coming out?

This movie made me think of what it might be like if Ray Romano decided to do martial arts. Fabian Corillo looked just like Ray in that one where Ray was trying to act cool and got a tan and dyed his hair black.

Seriously, the acting was pretty bad, and the fighting was pretty... eh. The shots were edgy for the first 3 minutes and then they over-did it with 'edgy'. Then they over-did it with 'edgy'. Then they over-did it with 'edgy'. It was like a broken record with the speeding up and slowing down and almost stopping the camera. It's like back in school if you had the hyper kid running the movie projector. "Stop playing around Tommy!"

Still, there was some minor charm in this film. And to quote Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction), "Charm goes a long way." Still, watching it only one time would be fine with me.

Interesting house "the Dragon" has at the end. If you go for that "post-hurricane" look. Was that supposed to be his "Fortress of Solitude"??

If this comes to television, it's worth watching. In fact it has a made-for-TV look to it. 4/10

This movie sucked absolutely sucked. It came on TV and the only reason I watched it was because I was sick and couldn't really do much. The acting was bad all around. You'd expect more from someone like Gary Busey. The movie was low budget horribly acted and in fact made me sicker. I knew from the title Latin Dragon and the first I dunno 5 minutes that this was a stinker. I was really unimpressed by everything the plot was predictable and I've seen better fight scenes in a Steven Segal movie. You expect the good guy to roll up on a Harley Davidson but this guy nope he's on a toy bike a Kawasaki. To me that does not scream butt kicking' its more like i dunno guy who teaches Karate at the local YMCA and thats exactly what the fighting looked like. Like they payed a guy a hundred bucks to come on the set and teach these guys basic karate. They should've also hired an acting coach cause they couldn't get that right either. This movie was a real disappoint a couple of no body's Gary Busey and Lorenzo Lamas. Oh how the mighty have fallen (Gary Busey that is Lorenzo Lamas has always been a crap actor)!

Man, I sure did love Billy Jack when I was a kid and "Everybody Loves Raymond" is one funny show. So, as I sat watching this movie I kept thinking to myself, "Gosh, this sure seems familiar in a really odd, totally indirect sort of way."

And then it hit me.

The hero looks like Ray Romano and the avenging retired soldier aspect of his character reminded me of Billy Jack. Then you've got some bad guys making everyone miserable and rich folks with money providing money to the bad guys to make everyone miserable. I mean, it's not EXACTLY like Billy Jack but if Billy Jack ever made it to East L.A. this is exactly how he'd handle things.

Of course he wouldn't ride in on a burgundy red Kawasaki (!). No self respecting tough guy would.

There's a certain kind of movie that should always appeal to anyone who truly appreciates movies, and that's of the late-night variety. No, I'm not talking about late-night soft-core porn shows/movies, but it's really more of the late-night, "B"-movie action fanfare.

2004's "Latin Dragon" is one of those movies.

The film was directed by Scott Brown and co-written by Fabian Carrillo (who according to the blurbs on this movie's cover art), is the world's first Latin martial arts hero/sensation. Now I'm not sure about the exact validity of such a claim, but I guess I'll have to take it as the literal truth since as a fan of martial arts and martial arts movies, I cannot come up with a single martial arts actor who is said to be of Hispanic heritage.

According to his biography here on IMDb, Carrillo was born in South America (his specific country of birth is not listed), but was raised in The Bronx, New York; having been raised here in the United States, it certainly explains his surprisingly firm grasp of the English language, despite the occasional odd word or two of Spanish-language dialogue in the movie. He is also a three-time national Karate champion and holds five black belts in three fighting disciplines. So he certainly has the goods as a fighter, but can he act?

For my late-night viewing pleasure, watching a Latin martial artist on TV was a welcome change. Carrillo is a dynamic presence on the screen and he definitely has a future in American martial arts movies, if he ever gets that big - he appears to be a likable all-around good guy, and all he really needs to do is develop the necessary acting skills to better carry a film production. Hence, that's what I got out of watching "Latin Dragon": he is certainly one to look out for, though I am kind of surprised that this movie came out in 2004 and he has not been picked up yet for at least an appearance as a villain in a mainstream American studio production (you hearing me calling you, right, Mr. Robert Rodriguez, Mr. Quentin Tarantino?).

"Latin Dragon" has a by-the-numbers plot that is also an iconic riff on western movies: Carrillo plays the typical lone hero Danny Silva, a world-weary expert in Karate and former government assassin, who returns to his old neighborhood in East Los Angeles riding high a ruby-red Kawasaki motorcycle. He discovers that the neighborhood is being terrorized by violent Latino gang members under the leadership of Paco (Robert LaSardo), who also happens to be in league with Bishop Thorn (all-purpose bad guy Gary Busey, hamming it up as a stereotypical villain in the film's most enthusiastic performance), a greedy land developer who wants the poor working-class Hispanics and Asians to move out so he can build a major city. Danny goes to work beating up the legions of bad guys sent in his general direction, while also reuniting with his cop-brother Rafael (Luis Ramos) and childhood sweetheart Claudia (Joyce Giraud), while also trying to save his community that he loves so much.

As I stated earlier, the movie is pretty typical martial arts/action movie fanfare. I wouldn't expect much considering it's a low-budget production, but it's an interesting one with promise for its chief protagonist. It certainly kept my attention, since Carrillo proves to be a dynamic fighting presence on the screen, even if he isn't really the best actor in the world.

One thing that may annoy some people are the "Matrix"-like CGI special effects that pop up during some of the film's action sequences. But I guess that since it was made in 2004 - one year after the dual threats of "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003) and "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003) and every other clone in the wake of "The Matrix" (1999) and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) - every action movie big & small had to have slow-motion "Matrix"-inspired action sequences. And Carrillo's most impressive fight scene has him battling Thorn's right-hand man Frank (Lorenzo Lamas).

It'll be interesting to see what the future holds in store for Fabian Carrillo.

5/10