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nTitle: The Last Dragon (1985)
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nDirector: Michael Schultz
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nCast: Taimak, Vanity, Julius J. Carry III, Faith Prince, LeonO’Brien
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nReview:
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nBack in 1984, John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Kid (1984) was anhuge success in theaters; it told the story of Daniel LaRusso, an American kidnwho has trouble adjusting to his new neighborhood. His school mates make fun ofnhim, bullies have a field day kicking his ass around. Fortunately, Daniel befriendsnthe magical Mr. Miyagi, a Japanese old man who teaches Daniel the ways ofnKarate and how to confront his own demons. The Karate Kid was such a hit thatnit spawned three other sequels after it. It also inspired producer Berry Gordy tonmake an all black version of The Karate Kid, which turned out to be the veryneclectic, funny and entertaining flick called The Last Dragon. Both films sharensimilarities, both are about young dudes trying to harness the powers ofnKarate, both have old oriental guys teaching these youngsters martial arts, butnwhile The Karate Kid is more of a drama, The Last Dragon differs in that it’snnot trying to be a serious film at all, The Last Dragon actually embraces it’s ‘cheesetastic’nroots and swims in them effortlessly.
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nHere’s a film that mixes Kung Fu Masters, Television DancenShows, Vanity, Music Videos, Disco Dancing, Pizza Parlor’s, Gangsters, MusicnProducers, Piranha’s and Break Dancing! Oh and let’s not forget the wonderful worldnof fortune cookie making! So as you can see, The Last Dragon is very differentnin tone to The Karate Kid. Yet at the same time, it delivers that “believe in yourself”nmessage that’s so popular in cinema; the idea that once you start believing innyourself you can achieve anything. In contrast with The Karate Kid, The LastnDragon sends its message in a more lighthearted manner, with characters thatndon’t take themselves too seriously, hell, the movie doesn’t take itself toonseriously, everything unfolds in a goofy, fun vibe. MichaelnSchultz, the films director (a.k.a. the guy who directed Krush Groove (1985)) mentions in the dvd commentary that he wanted thenfilm to be cartoony, which is pretty obvious when we take one look at the filmsnmain characters for example, one of the villains is this guy who walks aroundnwith football gear, and calls himself “The Shogun of Harlem”! So don’t expect anserious drama, in fact, expect the complete opposite, a cartoonish homage to Shaw Bros. KungnFu movies. For example, the film opens up with Taimak in a dojo, throwing some Kung Fu moves, which is the traditional way in which many Shaw Bros. film started out, with a Kung Fu master displaying some moves as the credits roll on screen. Also, the whole thing with the glowing hands comes straight out of The Five Fingers of Death (1972). There’s also direct homages to Bruce Lee films, so while it’s a parody, the film knows exactly where its coming from.
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nTaimak, the twenty something actor who starred as BrucenLeroy, had never done a film before this one; he basically learned how to actnwhile making this film. He was obviously chosen because of his martial artsnabilities more than his acting abilities, yet, that raw, rookie naiveté thatnTaimak exudes through his performance is exactly what was needed for thencharacter of Bruce Leroy, a nerdy kung fu freak who is obsessed with all thingsnBruce Lee, so much so that he dresses in Chinese clothing and eats his pop cornnwith chop sticks while watching Enter the Dragon (1973) at the local theater. Yet,neven though the guy is extremely skilled in martial arts, he’s not very skillednwith the ladies. Leroy doesn’t even know how to make a move on ‘Laura’, the televisionnhost of a dance show called ‘7th Heaven’. Laura was played by 80’s pop star ‘Vanity’, whomnsome of you might remember from her role in the over the top action film ActionJackson (1988), where she starred alongside Carl Weather’s as a junky lookingnto get rehabilitated. On The Last Dragon she plays the role of a VJ who getsnmuscled around by a music producer who wants to make her play one of the musicnvideos he produced. If she doesn’t play his video, she dies!
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nThis whole element about a music producer trying to musclenhis star into fame is the part of the film that some people felt got in the waynof the film. Some feel the movie might have been just fine had it just beennabout Bruce Leroy looking for his inner glow. The whole musical thing isnprobably there because this film is produced by Berry Gordy, a Motown producernwho sometimes produced films as well. Actually, the official title of the filmnis Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, so it’s his film. By the way, I think thisnmight be the only time where the producers name is placed on the screen as partnof the films title. Gordy also produced The Wiz (1978), the all black castnversion of The Wizard of Oz. But most of the time, Berry Gordy would producenthese awesome Motown songs that got used in film soundtracks all the time.nSpeaking of film soundtracks, the one for The Last Dragon is extremely 80’s! Inmean, it doesn’t get more 80’s than DeBarge singing “Rhythm of the Night” nowndoes it? Well, if that doesn’t get your nostalgic juices flowing, how aboutnkung fu masters who busts into movie theaters carrying boom boxes and spontaneouslynbreak dancing? Ha! The movie also has its own theme song called ‘The LastnDragon’, by the way, this song was nominated for worst song of the year at thenRazzies, but damn, I haven’t been able to take it out of my head for the pastnfew days! Vanity sings a tune called ‘7th Heaven’ but by god it’s terrible! It was also nominated for worst song of the year at the Razzies.Still, I gotta be honest, for the few minutes that Vanity is on screen performing this song, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen, I watched the whole thing with morbid glee. So expect a movie with a super 80’s vibe and a soundtrack filled with hits from that era, and one or two songs made specifically for the movie.
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nOne of the more entertaining aspects of The Last Dragon is itsnmain villain, Sho Nuff, The Shogun of Harlem, played by Julius J. Carry III.nThe guy looks like a clone made out of Busta Rhymes and Samuel L. Jackson’s dna.nIn fact, Busta Rhymes actually dressed like The Shogun of Harlem in the music videonfor his song ‘Dangerous’. At one point in the video Busta actually quotes this film! Andneven more of a concidence is the fact that Samuel L. Jackson was actually goingnto play this character in a remake of The Last Dragon that was in the works,nbut nothing ever came of that remake, I guess it stayed in development hell.nSho Nuff almost steals the film from Taimak, if Taimak’s character didn’tneventually find his glow and become “The Master”, which is a pretty cool scenenin my book. The climactic battle was what I loved the most about the film whennI watched it as a kid because both the villain and the hero start glowing asnthey fight, and their punches create these sparks! It made for a cool visual;nby today’s standards these visual effects are tame, but for me, the idea, andnthe visual still retains its charm. Bottom line with The Last Dragon is that,nyeah it’s silly, yeah it’s cheesy, but it’s fun cheese, recommend it for that.
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nRating: 3 out of 5
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