The Model Ship Blog

See The Film The Last Dragon

Posted by Jason Boyer

The Last Dragon was a film produced by Motown Records in the mid-eighties, and while it was sort of created as a way to market a few singles, notably Oh Sheila, the film still stands as a pretty good Kung Fu movie, a good comedy, and one of the all time must download movies of the eighties. It’s fun, funny, sort of corny and very eighties.

The film follows Bruce Leroy, or so is his nickname. He’s a young martial artist from Harlem who works for his father’s pizza parlor while teaching Kung Fu to the local neighborhood kids. Throughout his adventures, he also has to keep his cool and composure while dealing with his rival, Sho’Nuff, who’s always trying to get a rise out of him. Sho’Nuff, you see, is the Shogun of Harlem… Yep, the Shogun of Harlem. That’s what he likes to call himself.

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.

The only downside to the movie is the comparatively less interesting subplot revolving around a really, really awful Cyndi Lauper style singer and her manager/boyfriend who’s trying to get her some airtime on a local music show, produced and hosted by Bruce Leroy’s would-be-lover. This subplot isn’t the most interesting part of the film, but fortunately it’s not a main focus.

And of course, it does pay off in the end when the manager hires all the baddest dudes in the city to have it out with Bruce Leroy and his students. These “bad dudes” include a big fat old white guy with a Mister T Mohawk and an all gold one piece suit… Yep, real bad dudes, these guys.

There are a ton of fun, corny eighties movie moments along the way, with Bruce Leroy seeking out an old Confucian master of wisdom; the guy who writes fortune cookies. When he discovers that the fortune cookie writer is actually a computer, he has a moment of zen like clarity.

Could the movie have been a bit better without the subplot about the record promoter and his girlfriend? Sure, but there’s always something about every movie where it “could have been better”. Regardless, what’s there is a fun, funny, corny, exciting little gem of a film. Half kung fu, half spoof of kung fu, and all eighties.

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.

Are you unsolicited, sending this to a warm lead, or is this an individual waiting for your demo’ Movie Tv Shows Just in tiny winy period of six years, Faith Hill has sold more than 11 million records, harvested eight No. I doubt you could find many if any of the old mom and pop rental stores that use to make up the majority of rental stores.

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