Le Dernier Dragon

This love letter to Bruce Lee and martial arts classic movies is not so well made; however, it is delightful to watch. The characters are over the top. The cinematography, set design, and costumes are dripping with the 80's. The story is a fun, light story of a martial arts student in Harlem, NY forced to find a balance between his desire to avoid violence with his need to use his unique skills for good. The music is good, being a Berry Gordy production. Vanity is beautiful and good. Tiamat has become a legend from this one film, and he is perfect for this role. Julius Carey's Shogun of Harlem is one of my favorite characters. The film is infused with its adoration of Enter the Dragon and Bruce Lee and does not take itself too seriously, so why should we. Check out the various small performances from actors that became much bigger, like William H. Macy. The fight choreography is fun- not great but fun.

Needless to say, this movie is incredibly cheesy. But it's also deceptively clever at times, and if you just go with it, it's a lot of fun.

Leads Taimak and Vanity (yes, they each have only one name) are surrounded by a talented and colorful supporting cast, allowing them to do what they do best; look good (and in the case of Taimak) kick a lot of butt.

It's sort of a mash-up of two of the most prominent b-movie genres of the 70s; Blaxploitation and Kung-Fu. But it's the 80s, so there's pop music and it has a happy ending.

Leroy Green (Taimak) is an avid martial arts enthusiast who has recently completed his master's (Thomas Ikeda) training. Still not having attained "the Glow" a martial arts master is supposed exhibit when attaining the final level, the master tells Leroy the name of a master named "Sum Dum Goy" who is in New York but the master doesn't know where. Leroy's reputation attracts the attention of gang leader Sho'nuff (Julius Carry), the self-proclaimed Shogun of Harlem, who seeks to provoke a fight with Leroy to prove his superiority which Leroy refuses at every turn. Meanwhile video DJ Laura Charles (Vanity) hosts the hottest music video showcase show on TV and attracts the attention of sleazy producer Eddie Arkadian (Christopher Mrney) who responds to Laura's refusal to showcase his prospects by having thugs attempt to intimidate here. A chance encounter with Leroy results in Laura getting saved from the thugs and Laura develops feelings for Leroy.

The Last Dragon was the final film production of Mowtown Productions, the film and TV production arm of Mowtown Records. Following the critical and commercial failure of The Wiz, The Last Dragon was a seemingly risking endeavor for the company as the movie is an homage to blaxploitation and kung-fu films which had fallen out of popularity in the 1980s with paradigm shifts moving away from the films that had once played in the grindhouses of 42nd Street and the availability of home video lead to many films once staples of such grindhouses being released on the home video market. A decent sized success upon release making three times its $10 million budget despite mixed reviews. In the year's since the film's release The Last Dragon has attained a cult following, and deservedly so because it's the best martial-arts, Blaxploitation, romance, musical, parody, homage you could hope to see.

The movie is a strange journey that should be seen to be believed. If you were to mix elements of Bruce Lee movies, Xanadu, some Phantom of the Paradise, and Black Belt Jones, you'd only begin to approach the experience that comes from watching this movie. With its tongue firmly in cheek but not going into full on parody still taking its martial arts plot fairly seriously (to a point) with most of the plot points seen in Bruce Lee's films or the various Shaw Brothers productions proudly on display with a mash-up of 70s attitudes and sounds along with contemporary music of the 80s with a mixture of 70s sounding funk and 80s New Wave making the film a rollercoaster ride through music and martial arts.

Now with that said there's plenty about the film that doesn't work or isn't up to the level of the rest of the film. Taimak was a 19 year old martial artist with no prior acting experience and it shows. Taimak beat out Wesley Snipes, Mario Van Peebles, Laurence Fishburne and even Denzel Washington for the lead role and the fact that Taimak's career never really took off is proof of his lack of stage presence. Now with its mashup tone and homage to 70s martial arts flicks the movie uses Taimak's stilted acting to its advantage by making it fit within its strange world. The movie also has one too many comic relief characters with Leroy's brother Richie played by Leo O'Brien a rather grating presence in the film that could've easily been merged with the other better comic relief character Johnny Yu with little effort. The movie also feels like it's about 15 minutes too long and would've benefitted greatly from a leaner 90 minute runtime.

The Last Dragon is an enjoyable bit of mashup nonsense that pays homage to the bygone days of Blaxploitation and Martial Arts films that had largely died off with the advent of the 1980s. The film is filled with all manner of visual and auditory marvels be it its eclectic soundtrack, it's engaging fight scenes, and fun comedy. The Last Dragon is a movie that needs to seen as words can't really do justice to the playfully silly world it creates. The movie does overdo some comic relief characters and the film could've benefited from a leaner runtime, but as a movie The Last Dragon leaves its mark in a way you won't soon forget.

This movie is like a guilty pleasure- nobody really talks about it, but every time it comes up in a crowd, within seconds people are using classic lines like "Who's the master?" and "Hey my man, what it look like?" and laughing like maniacs.

This was my favorite movie as a teenager and I've probably seen it 100 times. From the hilarious over-the-top performances to the hybrid karate/comedy/musical genre, it's a movie that kept me laughing the whole way through.

If you like classic movies, then don't waste your time- you'd be better off watching "The Sound of Music" for the 800th time. But if you didn't like this movie, odds are you tried not to.

Forget the campiness. Who cares about the less-than-Oscar-nomination acting. I never watched The Last Dragon for these reasons. I watched it because I loved the feeling and spirit. Oh, and Vanity. This movie became such a huge influence in my life that I pursued martial arts lessons so that I could be just like LeRoy Green. Now, nineteen years later, I am nearly ready for my Masters rank in the martial arts. This movie was all about basic things in life: good triumphing over evil, the importance of love, family ties, loyalty and plain, old good fun. I find it interesting that LeRoy could reach the Final Level ONLY after he had found someone else to help; i.e. Laura Charles. Rather like life should be, eh?! Love is truly the ingredient for a rich, fulfilled life. Of course, some serious kung fu adds some spice to life. Just one thing: how did LeRoy practice catching a bullet in his teeth? Did his old master train him by throwing bullets to him? Forget the hoakiness. Just enjoy this awesome (and rather poignant)film.