cricketbat
The Last Dragon is just embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for the actors who are part of it, I'm embarrassed for the filmmakers who created it and I'm embarrassed that I watched it. Yes, it's very mockable, but it's also very painful to endure. I don't know if this movie is intentionally trying to be campy or terrible, but it's one I'll probably never watch again.
generationofswine
Can we give a shout out to 1985? Every so often there is a single year that has so many great movies it defines your watching habits. 1985 was one of them...and there were a couple more in the '90s...but 1985 wins it for having the most beloved childhood movies released.Ooooohhhhh, he had us all when he caught the arrow, didn't he? It is still awesome, that opening and...who cares about how dated it all is or how stupid Sho 'nuff looks with weird red get-up, this movie was too cool when you were a little boy.Leroy Green...he was totally Bruce Lee, or at least he was for a group of kids that were too young to know who Bruce Lee was...but not so young we didn't let this movie make us obsessed with Vanity.And...as an adult...I am still not sure how Vanity became famous. We may have all been in love with here when we were little but...yeah, total confusion about the big deal was and some odd association with The Artist formerly known as that we weren't old enough to understand.But....it was our introduction to women like Vanity...to Kung-Fu...to Blacksploitation films, to everything as absolutely movie centered horrible that we could handle and as a little kid....we loved it.And as an adult, I can ignore the camp and the stupid parts enough to still love it. So much fun.
rexbgood
This is a movie I LOVED as a kid. I probably watched my VHS copy twenty or thirty times and have very fond memories. However, it's one of those movies that when you watch it as an adult, you wonder "what the hell did I like about this"? Vanity is still super-hot in this, but everything else is worse than I remember. IMDb says $10m budget, so the film loses a lot of points for that. It's a B-movie with a studio budget and that's unforgivable. At a million bucks, I'd give the film a 7 or 8 our out of ten. The gags aren't funny, the writing is silly in parts and the characters are over the top (by design, I would suspect), but maybe the teen set was the only audience really targeted and they probably would still have fun with it.
elshikh4
Welcome to the 1980s. The 7th Heaven for the adolescent's ingenuous dreams. Some hate the 1980s; maybe because it has nothing to do with them nostalgically, or because the lost relationship between them and the *dreamer adolescent* inside them. For me, dancing with the 1980s is forever my hobby, my fun. Whatever the "date" is, I must enjoy something. Always romantic or meaningful. Its fever is still sweet and electrifying. This time, you may feel that the dancing floor has a beauty queen. Beautiful ? For sure, queen ? Not that sure ! This time, (The Karate Kid) meets the very noisy kids from (The Goonies), meets the honorable MTV ! Actually, the case wasn't that bad at all. You have some charismatic young martial arts fighter, some real dashing girl with charming, too sexy, presence; look at her eyes and her smile.. Pure magic (Taimak, Vanity.. Where are both of them now ?!), some shadows of comedy and action. Plus the fantasy factor. The formula looks nice, it has elements of a world I love. But OH MY GOD, some movies aren't meant to be made !The 1980s was overweight with too many fantasy adventures. For instance, at the same year of 1985 there were : (Red Sonja), (The Black Cauldron), (Ladyhawke), and (Legend). Though (The Last Dragon) didn't even have the opportunity to challenge them or else. But at least it's not the negative version of many innocent dreams that filled the era. It's like a rapid reverie among them.It was the right ambition in the wrong hands, or in the wrong way. While trying to achieve the ambition of one fantasy / musical / romance / comedy / action movie; serious hastiness seriously interrupted, to end up with a campy version of that ambition instead. It's the quick little of everything; knowing that it was so poor as well. In fact, the low budget transformed it into cheap comic-book.Let alone, few provocative elements : The storyline of the bad singer, the idiot characterization of the evil man, the savage presence of that 11 years kid who was screaming so faithfully and unbearably too "Take your hands off my woman" !! To tell you the truth, I hoped that the evil man cooks him and eats him fast enough ! I hated his acting, his role, or even his existence in life. Basically the role must have been for OLDER boy, but if we just bring up the subject of what was necessary to be here and wasn't, I think I'll exceed the limited space of reviewing movies on the IMDb ! Sorrowfully, the final result was bizarre mix of modern fairytale which has gone destitute, and one musical which has been miscarried.Still some moments, or echoes from the original ambition, are available. On the top of course is the great "First Time on a Ferris Wheel" by Smokey Robinson and Syreeta at the finale. Look at the way it's done with pausing the frame and all, WAW it's the best end for a movie I didn't watch. All in all, this dancing was modest. But despite being not one of the 1980s' best performances, it has some of its loveliest ambitions. So look at the remnants : the atmosphere, the soundtrack, Taimak, Vanity, the nostalgia,… Well, still a beauty, like a possible runner-up. And still at heart, as an adolescent dream, yet done adolescently too.I'm nearly whispering : Enjoy it.
