Leroy is also a martial arts master, something shown to us at the beginning when his sensei quite rudely starts firing arrows at him unannounced while he trains. Sadly, nobody wanted to make a LOGAN-style movie about old Zangief.īlack belt martial artist Taimak stars as Leroy Green aka Bruce Leeroy, a young black man obsessed with Asian culture, including walking around New York City at night wearing a rice paddy hat, eating popcorn with chopsticks, and speaking in fortune cookie sayings like The Sphinx from MYSTERY MEN (even when a girl is trying to wax on-wax off in to his pants). And given the musical nature and the fact that people occasionally glow, in some ways THE LAST DRAGON plays like XANADU with occasional punching and kicking. If you assume that Gordy’s main concern with this film was promoting his artists and selling records, with everything else playing second fiddle, some of the bizarre choices and lapses in quality almost make sense. Although I will forever defend the Razzie-nominated title song as being awesome. It explained so much-the plot, which revolved around the ins and outs of music industry characters that stand around to sing and dance in public for no reason and the unending supply of horrible songs that dominates the movie (including showing an entire DeBarge music video). A movie where martial artists turn in to neon glowsticks when they believe in themselves.Īnd then I found the reason: THE LAST DRAGON was produced by Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. A piece of art that combined cultural/racial stereotypes and expectations in ways that were both offensive and occasionally profound. One that mixed kung fu, blaxpoitation funk culture, and nonstop R&B music. I needed to know how such a movie could exist.

The first time I watched THE LAST DRAGON I was left absolutely awestruck. On his quest to possess the mystical power of The Glow, a young kung fu master must contend with the self-appointed Shogun of Harlem and a wannabe gangster trying to break in to the music industry.

So I’m watching RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON and this happens…Ĭlearly this $100 million Disney movie was just an excuse to introduce younger audiences to the real LAST DRAGON… The Last Dragon (1985)

The last dragon movie 1985