Title: The Last Dragon (1985)
Director: Michael Schultz
Cast: Taimak, Vanity, Julius J. Carry III, Faith Prince, Leo
O’Brien
Review:
Back in 1984, John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Kid (1984) was a
huge success in theaters; it told the story of Daniel LaRusso, an American kid
who has trouble adjusting to his new neighborhood. His school mates make fun of
him, bullies have a field day kicking his ass around. Fortunately, Daniel befriends
the magical Mr. Miyagi, a Japanese old man who teaches Daniel the ways of
Karate and how to confront his own demons. The Karate Kid was such a hit that
it spawned three other sequels after it. It also inspired producer Berry Gordy to
make an all black version of The Karate Kid, which turned out to be the very
eclectic, funny and entertaining flick called The Last Dragon. Both films share
similarities, both are about young dudes trying to harness the powers of
Karate, both have old oriental guys teaching these youngsters martial arts, but
while The Karate Kid is more of a drama, The Last Dragon differs in that it’s
not trying to be a serious film at all, The Last Dragon actually embraces it’s ‘cheesetastic’
roots and swims in them effortlessly.
Here’s a film that mixes Kung Fu Masters, Television Dance
Shows, Vanity, Music Videos, Disco Dancing, Pizza Parlor’s, Gangsters, Music
Producers, Piranha’s and Break Dancing! Oh and let’s not forget the wonderful world
of fortune cookie making! So as you can see, The Last Dragon is very different
in tone to The Karate Kid. Yet at the same time, it delivers that “believe in yourself”
message that’s so popular in cinema; the idea that once you start believing in
yourself you can achieve anything. In contrast with The Karate Kid, The Last
Dragon sends its message in a more lighthearted manner, with characters that
don’t take themselves too seriously, hell, the movie doesn’t take itself too
seriously, everything unfolds in a goofy, fun vibe. Michael
Schultz, the films director (a.k.a. the guy who directed Krush Groove (1985)) mentions in the dvd commentary that he wanted the
film to be cartoony, which is pretty obvious when we take one look at the films
main characters for example, one of the villains is this guy who walks around
with football gear, and calls himself “The Shogun of Harlem”! So don’t expect a
serious drama, in fact, expect the complete opposite, a cartoonish homage to Shaw Bros. Kung
Fu 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.
Taimak, the twenty something actor who starred as Bruce
Leroy, had never done a film before this one; he basically learned how to act
while making this film. He was obviously chosen because of his martial arts
abilities more than his acting abilities, yet, that raw, rookie naiveté that
Taimak exudes through his performance is exactly what was needed for the
character of Bruce Leroy, a nerdy kung fu freak who is obsessed with all things
Bruce Lee, so much so that he dresses in Chinese clothing and eats his pop corn
with chop sticks while watching Enter the Dragon (1973) at the local theater. Yet,
even though the guy is extremely skilled in martial arts, he’s not very skilled
with the ladies. Leroy doesn’t even know how to make a move on ‘Laura’, the television
host of a dance show called ‘7th Heaven’. Laura was played by 80’s pop star ‘Vanity’, whom
some 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 looking
to get rehabilitated. On The Last Dragon she plays the role of a VJ who gets
muscled around by a music producer who wants to make her play one of the music
videos he produced. If she doesn’t play his video, she dies!
This whole element about a music producer trying to muscle
his star into fame is the part of the film that some people felt got in the way
of the film. Some feel the movie might have been just fine had it just been
about Bruce Leroy looking for his inner glow. The whole musical thing is
probably there because this film is produced by Berry Gordy, a Motown producer
who sometimes produced films as well. Actually, the official title of the film
is Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, so it’s his film. By the way, I think this
might be the only time where the producers name is placed on the screen as part
of the films title. Gordy also produced The Wiz (1978), the all black cast
version of The Wizard of Oz. But most of the time, Berry Gordy would produce
these awesome Motown songs that got used in film soundtracks all the time.
Speaking of film soundtracks, the one for The Last Dragon is extremely 80’s! I
mean, it doesn’t get more 80’s than DeBarge singing “Rhythm of the Night” now
does it? Well, if that doesn’t get your nostalgic juices flowing, how about
kung fu masters who busts into movie theaters carrying boom boxes and spontaneously
break dancing? Ha! The movie also has its own theme song called ‘The Last
Dragon’, by the way, this song was nominated for worst song of the year at the
Razzies, but damn, I haven’t been able to take it out of my head for the past
few 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.
One of the more entertaining aspects of The Last Dragon is its
main villain, Sho Nuff, The Shogun of Harlem, played by Julius J. Carry III.
The guy looks like a clone made out of Busta Rhymes and Samuel L. Jackson’s dna.
In fact, Busta Rhymes actually dressed like The Shogun of Harlem in the music video
for his song ‘Dangerous’. At one point in the video Busta actually quotes this film! And
even more of a concidence is the fact that Samuel L. Jackson was actually going
to play this character in a remake of The Last Dragon that was in the works,
but nothing ever came of that remake, I guess it stayed in development hell.
Sho Nuff almost steals the film from Taimak, if Taimak’s character didn’t
eventually find his glow and become “The Master”, which is a pretty cool scene
in my book. The climactic battle was what I loved the most about the film when
I watched it as a kid because both the villain and the hero start glowing as
they fight, and their punches create these sparks! It made for a cool visual;
by today’s standards these visual effects are tame, but for me, the idea, and
the visual still retains its charm. Bottom line with The Last Dragon is that,
yeah it’s silly, yeah it’s cheesy, but it’s fun cheese, recommend it for that.
Rating: 3 out of 5
