Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon

Being from Guam, of course I wanted to see this film. Everyone made such a big deal about it and the Government put up the money for it.

What a really bad movie. It made little sense to me and was a waste of time. I watched it on TV here so I couldn't fast forward it!

Some of my friends were in it as extras, so I guess it was cool seeing them, but the shot they were in was out-of-focus, so even that was worthless. My friends were angry. I guess they waited for hours and hours and never got paid.

The only place this movie is ever gonna play is in the your local car-wash bin for $1.99. It's not even worth that!

The movie starts off with a bunch of stock footage of a motor-bike race, and continues for about another 15 minutes until there's a fight at a bar with sports Photographer Max Havoc (they don't tell us his middle name) and some bimbo.

Then we're off to Guam for some travel promo stuff, and then the films over.

Sure there's a couple of poorly executed fights, some running around in a hotel, a row boat/swimmer wreak, and about 350 shots of the same slow-mo shot of Max punching someone, but that's about it.

Albert Pyun has made the worst movie of his sorry-ass career (I mean it, too. It's worse then those Urban Menace films)

This movie had to be a scam, all the way around. Someone got some movie budget money in their pockets and now everything's in court.

Can I file a lawsuit against Pyun & Co. for having had watch this thing?

Don't waste a penny of your $ or a second of your time on Max Havoc- Curse of the Dragon

Due to the controversy involving a defaulted loan secured by the government of Guam, I had a particular interest in getting to watch this movie. More than the usual, being an Albert Pyun fan as I am.

Pyun goes back to the late 80's and early 90's with this movie, the days when he directed wooden martial artists like Jean Claude Van Damme, Olivier Gruner and Sasha Mitchell.

This movie revolves around a former kick-boxing champ turned sports photographer, and his peculiar ability to run into trouble wherever he goes. Funny enough, his name is Max Havoc. Mr. Havoc is sent to Guam for an easy job and to relax. BUt he runs into, first, with two troublesome teen sisters, one smart and one brain-dead (guess for which he fell?), and then with an entire Japanese organization, who's after a stolen jade dragon.

The lead is the Swiss nobody Mickey Hardt. He has the charisma of an amoeba, and his acting skills leave much to be desired. But this is not a dramatic piece, or the tale of an epic battle. This is a martial arts flick and in what regards kicking and punching and beating, Hardt does not disappoint. And despite this, Havoc is a well-natured fellow. Probably the guy every father'd want for her daughter (I just said that? Lame.) There're some strange surprises on the cast. Richard Roundtree ("SHaft") plays Havoc's former trainer now antique dealer. Carmen Elektra tries to "show her place" to Havoc during four scenes, for which she got one hundred grand. David Carradine plays Bill... again. All in automatic. Don't expect any acting shocking you.

Then there are these two sisters. Neither of them can act well and there's this strange lesbic trend in their scenes together. Not as evident as in Bill's...sorry, Carradine's assistants, and way too subtle.

Pyun's directing is normal here. The fights are well-choreographed yet there's an unnecessary over-repetition of the flashback scene that could have been done without. It lacks that special something though.

Far better than some action junk Lorenzo Lamas has done. It has good martial arts, nice scenes, beautiful views of Guam, plenty of girls in bikini, but you'll want to press MUTE when the sisters start talking. It's a watchable flick. For only one watch.

Max Havoc (Mickey Hardt) is an ex-kickboxer turned photographer who protects two attractive sisters from the Yakuza led by David Carradine. Seems that one of the sisters bought a jade dragon from dealer Richard Roundtree and after numerous awkward moments, Max Havoc saves the day but doesn't save the film. As far as narrative flow goes, Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is possibly Pyun's most chaotic movie ever made. (And I saw Nemesis 1-3, Bloodmatch and Deceit) The problem with Max Havoc is that it only provides occasional laughter. From laughably overblown suspense sequences that involve hostage taking, getting run over by a row-boat, getting cut up in a limo and much much more. However Pyun actually makes the biggest mistake by hardly giving us any dumb moments and basically the movie is mostly dulls-ville. There is some controversy over how this movie was made, but I for one am indifferent to such matters. Sure it's not right but i'm not here to discuss politics and my neutral observations are simple; Max Havoc is a terrible movie with only a few (unintentionally) hilarious moments to keep you from shutting it off. Among the unintentionally hilarious moments is how Pyun pays direct "homage" to Cyborg (itself a masterpiece compared to this) in that Pyun shows pointless flashbacks for no other reason but to stretch out the running time. In this case we watch Max Havoc deliver a jumping punch which is then followed by David Carradine looking mean into the camera and smoking his cigarette and showing his rings. Also the ending makes no sense and the impression here is given that the movie wasn't even indeed finished. Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is so incompetently edited that fight sequences are literally scrapped before the confrontation ends! Also the story is so over the map it's impossible to follow it coherently and finally the movie features acting so terrible that it sometimes borders on surreality. David Carradine and Richard Roundtree look (rightfully) embarrassed, Carmen Electra is not in it much and newcomer Mickey Hardt is so bad that he makes other Pyun leads (a list that includes Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sasha Mitchell, Michael Dudikoff,Gary Daniels, Steven Seagal and (shudder) Olivier Gruner) seem like master thespians. Seriously where did they find this guy? Still the main question is whether Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon works as a guilty pleasure style movie, and sadly the answer is no. There are a few laughs to be had but mainly we watch Mickey Hardt snap photos for like forty minutes before anything happens and this in itself is a tragedy because without dumb action, Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is just painful to watch.

Note:On the DVD there is a biography of David Carradine and Richard Roundtree however both sections neglect to mention Bound For Glory,Kill Bill Vol.1 and Shaft on the filmography for the two distinguished actors. Which only shows the ineptitude of all involved.

* out of 4-(Bad)

Don't believe all these negative reviews here for MAX HAVOC: CURSE OF THE DRAGON, it's worse. Way worse.

This is one of those films you sort of stumble upon at the video store, and everything else good or halfway good is already checked out, so you give it a shot, knowing full well the film is going to suck. But just how bad MAX HAVOC sucks may shock you: It's dull, boring, tiresome, listless, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Someone on one of these reviews here compares MAX HAVOC to an episode of MANGNUM P.I., except MANGNUM P.I. is at lest a competent product. MAX HAVOC is wretchedly bad. It's the kind of bad-film in which you wonder while watching it: "How do films like this get made?" A very good question.

MAX HAVOC was made by consistently bad film maker Albert Pyun. You wonder why anyone would knowingly hire this hack. The film is full of stock footage, bad acting, the list can go on forever.

There is currently some kinda controversy over the financing of the film. The island of Guam put up the money for this film (who can say why. I guess they have never seen an Albert Pyun film because that's exactly what they got: An Albert Pyun incompetent sh*t film.)

Folks, if you're a film investor and you see the name Albert Pyun attached to the film some slimy film producer is asking you to invest in, be afraid. Be very afraid.

If this film were an animal it would be taken out back and shot and put out of it's misery. If you're unfortunate enough to have to endure this dung-heap DVD, you may wish someone would shoot you and put you out of your misery.

MAX HAVOC: CURSE OF THE DRAGON is maximum incompetencey, maximum tedium, and maximum thievery.