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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Dragon Lord (1982)

Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)

Hiss of the 'Dragon'

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Dragon Lord on DVD

Miramax/Dimension continues to hack its way through many Hong Kong classics, delivering them on cheap DVDs in dubbed versions so horrendous that it threatens to send Hong Kong film back to the dark ages. The latest attempt is Dragon Lord, an early Jackie Chan feature made during his transitional phase; he was trying to stop being "the next Bruce Lee" and concentrating more on comedy. Chan also directed -- a skill he wasn't quite adept at just yet. Running 94 minutes, Dragon Lord relies heavily on very lowbrow juvenile humor. In fact, Chan (about age 28 at the time) behaves like a teenager, afraid of his father and trying and failing in his attempt to chase girls. The movie only contains two interesting action scenes -- a rooftop scene in which Jackie must avoid protruding spears, and a climactic fight in a grain warehouse -- and they're both fairly sluggish. A sort of football-like "hackey sack" game provides some interest, though. Dimension's DVD comes with optional subtitles and two chintzy trailers.

DVD Double-Bill: Dimension has also released Born to Defense (1986), the one and only film directed by and starring Jet Li. Not even Li was very happy with the result, and this botched DVD won't help matters.

Starring: Jackie Chan, Mars, Tai Do, Wai-Man Chan, Paul Chang, Hong-Yip Cheng, Hseuh Li, Huang Ing-Sik
Written by: Jackie Chan, King-Sang Tang, Barry Wong
Directed by: Jackie Chan
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for martial arts violence
Language: Cantonese with English subtitles
Running Time: 94 minutes
Date: May 19, 2004