Le dernier des dragons

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.

This is a moderately entertaining action film starring Dolph Lundgren as a mercenary in the post-apocalyptic future who goes against his mentor, an evil emperor, and teams up with the rebels. The film could have been better but it is saved by some spectacular fight scenes and stunts. Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa (who was also the bad guy in Dolph's 1991 movie Showdown In Little Tokyo) is a great villain, he is very believable and very menacing as the emperor Reuchang. This film is Dolph back to what he does best, it is full of machine gun battles, and Dolph kicking ass the whole way through the movie. Rachel Shane is good as the princess, and in the movie she is a mean fighter too. Not a very believable movie, but then hardly any of these type of movies are, and it is a Dolph movie. I would recommend it to action fans and Dolph fans alike, who will definitely get a kick out of it. This movie was meant to have a proper release in the US but for some reason it never did and instead got a cinema release elsewhere before it came out in the States. Overall, a great action movie, and a fine return to form for Dolph.

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' 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.

In a place where the past and future meet, Dolph will make one of his strangest movies yet. 'Bridge of Dragons' is the closest thing to a fairy tale that Dolph Lundgren is ever going to do. A fairy tale that involves more wasted bullets than John Woo could ever dream of, but a fairy tale none the less.

In a land where time where the past and future are apparently one, the evil General Ruechang (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) rules with an iron fist. The King has been dead for some time, but Ruechang is plotting to consolidate his power by marrying Princess Halo (Rachel Shane), allowing him to sit on the throne. Enter Warchild (Dolph), Ruechang's best soldier. When Princess Halo ditches the wedding in a bid to join the rebels, Warchild is sent in pursuit. However, Warchild has a conscience attack, and it may not quite be what Ruechang was expecting.

'Bridge of Dragons' is great fun if you like Dolph and cheese. The movie cheese, not the food cheese. In case you were not instantly able to tell that Ruechang is evil, he conveniently has the number 666 stuck on his helicopters and jeeps, for no apparent reason. On the other hand, the name Princess Halo pretty much ensures her good-guy status, and this fairy tale world gets crazier. We have Asian rulers, Scottish bartenders, and Dolph. Princess Halo's martial arts abilities are matched only by Warchild's and Ruechang's, without explanation of course. Thanks to a crazy past / future time combination, we get to see evil guys trading horses for women, only to have Dolph shoot them and drive off in a four-wheel drive. Interesting. And a princess joining the rebel alliance? Inconceivable!

'Bridge of Dragons' is an action B-movie at its most b-ness. We have a world in which everyone dies an acrobatic death, sometimes getting more acrobatic as the deaths pile up. Dolph does beat up and shoot many people, but leaves a few for Tagawa, Chow, and Gary Hudson. The action scenes are exciting, even if you can plainly see stunt men waiting for their cue to jump from the impending explosion. Awesome.

Don't be fooled by the cover. "The directorial style of John Woo" actually refers to the style of this film's director, Isaac Florentine. You can be excused for never having heard of him, as he seems to direct only action b-movies and episodes of 'Power Rangers'. Nor is 'Bridge of Dragons' Dolph's finest hour, as the package claims. It's like a fairy-tale version of 'Men of War' (which nearly is Dolph's finest hour), just with less of a point.

'Bridge of Dragons' is a fun movie. May even appeal to people who aren't Dolph Lundgren fans (and that doesn't happen very often), and is recommended to anyone for looking for cheap laughs - 4/10