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The Last Dragon
(aka Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon)
1985; directed by Michael Schultz

Though it was panned by critics upon its release in 1985, The Last Dragon has gone on to become one of the most loved films from the decade. In celebration of the film's thirtieth anniversary, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a special edition Blu-ray, so what better time than now to take another look at this cult classic?

Most people take The Last Dragon as strictly a martial arts film, and certainly there are elements from that genre, with fights coordinated by Ernie Reyes Sr. and Ron Van Clief and liberal inclusion of footage from Bruce Lee films. But at its heart, The Last Dragon is more of a musical, with the fight scenes replacing what would normally be dance sequences. This sort of take is not surprising when you take into account that the film's producer, Berry Gordy, was the founder of Motown records.

The Last Dragon

As a musical, The Last Dragon succeeds for the most part, with many of the songs having a catchy, fun 80's vibe. In particular, DeBarge's "Rhythm of the Night" is still one of the best representations of American pop music from the decade. Of course, there are a few clunkers thrown in as well, with Vanity's "7th Heaven" being particularly cringe-inducing. Acting-wise, we have a mixed bag, with the two lead heroes (Vanity and Taimak) sometimes struggling to deliver their lines, especially being in the shadow of Julius Carry's wonderfully over the top villain Sho'Nuff. It is also interesting seeing a few actors such as William H. Macy in some of their earliest work.

Getting back to the martial arts, frankly, what's here isn't as good as the truncated clips of Bruce Lee that sometimes come across the screen, but they're fun for the most part, especially the final match up between Taimak and Carry, which could almost be seen as a precursor to modern day fighting games such as Street Fighter for its inventive use of special effects to punctuate the fighters' blows. It's these sorts of things that show that The Last Dragon has aged well and proven itself to be a fairly important showcase of the cross-culturalism synergy that can be brought about via what some snobbier film "connoisseurs" consider a lower class of cinema.

RATING: 7

The Blu-ray is available from Amazon. The film has been remastered to 1080p 1.85:1 HD with a DTS 5.1 soundtrack and looks and sounds great. Special features include director's commentary and a 25 minute featurette that looks at the making of the movie and its subsequent impact. A voucher is also included to download the digital version via video on demand services such as Vudu.

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