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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Last Dragon Overview

By Dwayne Todd

The Last Dragon was actually a film produced by Motown Records back in the eighties. It seems that one of the primary concerns of the film might actually have been to promote new talent, particularly that one song, "Oh Sheila", you know, "Let me love you til the morning comes". But that doesn't change the fact that it's really a fun, exciting Kung Fu movie, and one of the must download movies of the eighties.

The story follows a young man nicknamed "Bruce Leroy", a Harlem martial artist who teaches Kung Fu to the local kids. He works at his father's pizza place, delivering pies on foot and deals with his rival, Sho'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem... Yep. Sho'Nuff... The Shogun of Harlem. This incredibly goofy martial arts tale takes place on the real streets of modern day Harlem and creates a really quirky, one of a kind movie.

Sho'Nuff is really one of the all time great screen villains. Everything about him is just... Wild, ridiculous and hilarious. He walks around with a crew of lackeys, and wherever he enters the scene, he's preceded by a little call-and-response speech between himself and his crew, as if they were the mirror on the wall, he asks them if he is the prettiest, the meanest and the baddest, and Sho Nuff, he is. He wears shoulder pads, visor sunglasses and hakama, those baggy pants worn by samurai. For style and attitude, he's really one of the funniest heavies of all time.

If there's one downside to the movie, it's the whole subplot about the Cyndi Lauper wannabe singer and her promoter/boyfriend. He's trying to play hardball in order to get her played on the local music show, and... Well, it's just not really the high point of the movie. It's not too much of a distraction, but you'll find yourself wishing they'd just get back to the kung fu already.

But regardless, it is funny, and it does pay off with a big brawl scene at the end when he hires all the meanest guys in the city to attack Bruce Leroy and his students. The end result is a really great rumble scene with Leroy taking on a few dozen hilarious, wild characters before finally beating Sho'Nuff and attaining "The Glow" which is what you call it when they draw a halo of light around your body frame by frame.

Besides the action and jokes, there are also some classic eighties scenes that you couldn't see in any other era, such as Leroy trying to find the man who writes the wise sayings on fortune cookies, only to find that the whole process is automated by a computer that prints them out.

Perhaps the movie might have been better without the relatively uninteresting subplot. After all, you just came for the kung fu, right? But nevertheless, it still remains a classic of its genre, and one of the few films to successfully spoof kung fu movies and honor them at the same time. It's really a lot of fun, with just enough corny eighties style goofiness to make it one of the all time classic eighties comedies.

Next time you want a goofy, fun eighties flick, and you want to see a little kung fu while you're at it, go ahead and give The Last Dragon a download.

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