THE LAST DRAGON (1985)

THE LAST DRAGON (1985)

Tagline: He's a martial arts master who refuses to fight. He's a Bruce Lee fan who's so sure he's Oriental that he eats popcorn with chopsticks. His friends think he's too serious. His family thinks he's crazy. His enemies think he's no challenge. But she knows he's The Last Dragon.

(Action, Martial Arts, Sho-Nuff!) [PG-13]

Well, well, well. If it ain't the serious, elusive Leroy Green. I've been waiting a long time for this, Leroy. I am sick of hearing these bulls--t Superman stories about the - Wassah! - legendary Bruce Leroy catching bullets with his teeth. Catches bullets with his teeth?

In this one, we are taken to 1980’s New York City where Shogun Sho-Nuff is king and the only threat to his complete Kung Fu reign over New York is a pesky Kung Fu legend known as Leroy Green aka “Bruce Leroy”. Leroy is on a quest to obtain the final level of Kung Fu mastery but is distracted by a beautiful singer named Laura Charles who is being hunted down by the sinister Eddie Arkadian trying to force her into playing his girlfriend’s music at her club. Is there a connection between Arkadian and Sho-Nuff, and will Leroy ever reach his goal of becoming…THE LAST DRAGON?

First off, I am embarrassed to say that I never saw this movie in the 80s. I literally stand here in cinematic shame hanging my proverbial head. With that said, this damn thing is beyond legendary. If you took BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and mated it with VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS, their baby would be THE LAST DRAGON. This thing is loaded with cheese, glorious cheese and I had a hard time not watching it over and over when I first found out about it. Yes, I bought the BLU-RAY, and yes, I have watched it 7 times in the past month. What? Is this movie entertaining as heck…Sho-Nuff!!

With names like Laurence Fishburne, Denzel Washington, and Wesley Snipes all trying for roles in this movie and getting turned down, the cast we ended up with was legendary. This was Taimak who plays Leroy Green’s first movie. He does come across as shy for the most part, but his take on the role is perfect. Taimak’s career is still going to this day. Vanity was also amazing as Laura Charles. Vanity was best known for her roles in this movie and films like ACTION JACKSON and NEON CITY. Vanity became a Christian in 1995 giving her life to the Lord Jesus Christ. We also get a mind-blowing performance from Julius Carry who plays Sho-Nuff. Sho-Nuff might be my favorite character from the 80s ever. He is either number 1 or a close second to Brian Blessed’s take on Prince Vultan in FLASH GORDON. Julius stopped acting in 2006 but had a long successful career showing up in everything from “The A-Team” to “Murphy Brown”. We also get Christopher Murney who plays Eddie Arkadian. He is fantastically over the top in this and was probably most famous for his role in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. Faith Prince also shows up in this in her first movie role ever. She plays Eddie’s girlfriend Angela and is pretty annoying in the role, but this movie seems to have launched her career. She is also still acting as of 2022.

Cinematically this movie is pretty average for the 80s. We do get some effects when the “glow” comes into play and Sho-Nuff has some animated graphics involved with him as well. I guess during productions a lot of scenes had to be cut out of the script to meet the budget they had to work with, but it’s all still extremely epic. I mean, what other movie is going to give you a shogun in football pads and a club that was built just for the movie that was so impressive that Diana Ross wanted to buy it. The martial arts and stunts aren’t spectacular when you put this up against other martial arts films, but everything comes together in perfect 80s symmetry. 

Musically this thing is a gem for some. I personally loved it with possibly Vanity’s song being the most out of place (not the worst though – the worst songs were “Test Drive” and “Dirty Books” by Faith Prince), but most of the music is really good and the movie also features DeBarge’s hit “Rhythm of the Night”. What else could you want?

Needless to say, I pretty much love this damn thing. Do I recommend it? Sho-Nuff, It’s a clear 7 out of 7 for me. You will have to be in the mood for a full 80s cheese pizza with all the toppings because this thing goes FULL cheese and it's absolute movie magic. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF MOTOWN PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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