If you ask me to name a list of favorite films from Dolph Lundgrenthen “Battle of Dragons” will be in the top three. At least that's how things stand at the moment, although I haven't seen all of his work. I understand perfectly well that this picture, as they say, lacks stars from the sky, and this is probably putting it mildly. Anyone who watches it will find a bunch of flaws, and the ratings on the largest film sites are quite eloquent. As a child, of course, I didn’t notice most of the mistakes, but now various mistakes and illogicalities of the script are visible to the naked eye. But the strangest thing is that I never cease to like the movie.
From a well-known director Isaac Florentine it turned out to create a kind of mixture of a fairy tale (fantasy, if you like) and an action movie. The “fairytale” component is expressed in a rather trivial plot. In a distant country there is a despotic general (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) has usurped the royal throne and wants to marry a beautiful princess. She, naturally, is against it. And only a valiant knight can save the beauty and the kingdom from the oppression of the tyrant, performed, of course, Dolph Lundgren. In general, you can find out about the same thing by reading the description of the film. The plot is naivety itself. This is not a claim, just a statement of fact. In addition, the landscape of that unknown state consists of continuous fields, meadows, and mixed forests. Very similar to central Russia. By the way, an interesting fact: in at least one of the helicopters, the instrument panel is signed in Russian (and even without grammatical errors, but this is not certain). It feels like it's somewhere nearby. Even funnier is that the number 666 is prominently displayed on all transport equipment. Apparently, this is nothing more than a symbol of the fact that the devil in the guise of a man is now in power.
As expected, the dictator general and his regime are opposed by a handful of ragamuffins, called rebels in the film, who look like simple peasants living in tents and eating pasture. Only in their hands they do not have rakes and shovels, but machine guns and grenades. In general, the forces are very unequal, since the general’s army has everything to win, while the rebels don’t have a thing. And as events have shown, the latter have almost no chance of winning. I can’t imagine how the princess, who was talking about leading the resistance, would be able to do anything to oppose her adversary. In general, the surprising thing is that apparently no one knows this princess by sight, except for a couple of the closest people, so she can easily leave the palace and go wherever she wants and why she wants. And escaping into the forest is, as they say, a piece of cake for her. It is unclear what kind of boobies are guarding the entrances and exits. They even let Dolph, who after his act should be declared “persona non granta,” without hiding his real identity, let him into the territory without any questions. In general, the script is full of holes, like a homeless person's socks.
But what the film does well is in its choice of actors for the main roles. The images of Dolph and Tagawa are incredibly cool. And I don’t even know who is cooler. Dolph is the general’s faithful dog, the best soldier, a brave warrior. Methodically, coolly and quickly destroys enemies with bare hands and with weapons. By the way, his gun has an unusual design, which I remembered in childhood. The hero is so severe that he allows himself not to aim when shooting at opponents, and still hits. Well, at least he looks in the direction of fire, and not in the other direction, otherwise it would look completely stupid. There was a feeling that no one on the set had ever heard of the rules of firearms combat, since targeted shooting was carried out there only occasionally. They also rarely hide behind cover; rather, on the contrary, they run into the line of fire in order to be killed quickly. Although at that time they liked to film large-scale shootouts in a similar manner. But where the creators of this painting brazenly screwed up was the bullet wounds. They forgot to draw a gunshot wound for every second enemy. Or maybe Dolph is so cool that he shoots invisible bullets that leave invisible wounds. Or the creators were simply saving budget. By the way, I didn’t notice this detail as a child. But I liked the way the shot people fell. The director and cameraman made a small emphasis on these falls and often showed them in slow-mo. There are enough slow-motion frames, but not too much. Well, that was great. The operator generally did a good job. They also give Dolph a chance to wave and not just shoot. In this film, he still kicks effectively from a roundhouse and it was here that I first had the opportunity to see a rare, not only for cinema, but in general, slashing kick.
I will remember Tagawa's first appearance as General Ryu Cheng for the rest of my life. The moment when he stepped out of the helicopter with his impassive narrowed gaze, the most stern expression on his face and pursed lips, immediately made it clear that this was pure evil. And this will be confirmed more than once during the course of the film. And it was played superbly. Although he has such facial features that he doesn’t have to go out of his way to show off the villain. And how the military uniform suits him is just a sight for sore eyes. Cool role, cool image. In this film, he was again destined to be defeated in a duel by Dolph, as happened eight years earlier in the film “Showdown in Little Tokyo”.
Of the minor characters I would like to note Gary Hudson, who at that time also often appeared in action films, but only, unfortunately, in supporting roles. Here he is presented as the same, but slightly less cool soldier than Dolph. At first they are friends, but after Lundgren's betrayal, Hudson becomes number one in Ryu Cheng's army and is ordered to hunt down and kill the traitor. He also got to fight and shoot, although not as much as he would have liked.
By the way, if the shootouts here are replete with slow motion, the hand-to-hand scenes are not far behind in this regard. Slow-motion strikes, slow-motion falls with a sharp transition to normal normal speed are common, but not all fights are filmed this way. Almost every skirmish has more than one of these techniques, but it looks cool in its own way. Of course, long takes are preferable, but even here it was edited quite well, and there are examples of much worse editing. I am glad that the contactless contact, which most likely was there, is not noticeable and not felt, unlike in a good half of the “Bashki” made in the USA.
It was after watching this movie as a child that I wanted to not only become muscular and/or learn some kind of martial art, but also become a military man. That's how much of an impression Dolph and his character made on me at the time, even though he's not at his physical peak here.
Sergey Volkolak
Especially for Fight-Films.info
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Tags: Bridge of Dragons, Isaac Florentine, Gary Hudson, Dolph Lundgren, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Tags: Bridge of Dragons, Isaac Florentine, Gary Hudson, Dolph Lundgren, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Yes, the film is really good. If we do not take into account the most famous and well-rated (by viewers, not by all sorts of critics) Lundgren’s works in the person of Showdown, Unisol and Expendables, then this film really qualifies for the top 3 in his filmography. You can place them right behind the Soldiers of Fortune.
In my opinion, a standard film from the Nu Image studio of the mid-1990s in Direct to VHS format. Another thing is that now, with their simplicity and clarity, such films somehow go very well. And of course the choreography by Isaac Fiorentino, who has been on a roll lately. And certainly not in the top three. For me it’s “The Executioner”, “Showdown in Little Tokyo” and “The Expendables”.