Latin Dragon

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.

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)!

"Latin Dragon" is an entertaining action film. The plot is: Danny Silva (Carrillo) is an undercover agent who has the battle the street gangs in his neighborhood. Gary Busey plays the street kingpin "Thorne". Lorenzo Lamas is his henchman "Frank".

The drawback in this movie is that Carrillo looks like a Latino Ray Romano. So it's hilarious to see him do martial arts. Busey and Lamas sleepwalk through their roles.

There's also some unnecessary "Matrix" style FX that come out of nowhere when bullets start flying. Overall, it's cheap and fun action... If you don't mind that.

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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