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Customer Reviews of Dragon and the Hawk DVD

Dragon and the Hawk
I'm not normally a very big fan of martial arts films - I need more than lots of good fight scenes to really enjoy a movie. This one has more. Most of the (admittedly very few) martial arts movies I've seen have fairly week plots that serve only to carry the action, and little in the way of a true story, character developement, humor (Jackie Chan movies being a notable exception), etc.

Dragon and the Hawk is a pleasant exception. It has a tight plot that delivers a good story without any notable plot holes,
Very good dialogue and reasonable character developement, a bit of humor sprinkled in, believable characters that are well-acted, and a high-energy soundtrack to go with the high-energy action. The evil scientist Therion (Trygve Lode) is downright creepy...

So by now you may be wondering why I rate it "only" four stars.
Well, for starters 4-1/2 stars wasn't one of the options. Another is that I'm very picky - the only martial arts films I've ever rated five stars are Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon. I think this film could have used a little more character developement, and little more humor. Plus I've always believed that virtually any film can be improved with a liberal dose of gratuitous nudity - but then that's me :)

All in all, I think Dragon and the Hawk is an excellent film, even for people like me that aren't all that into martial arts films. And for those of you who are, you won't be disappointed - if it's fight scenes you want, Dragon and the Hawk really delivers!

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An action-packed martial arts film
... with plenty of gripping sequences and fast-paced realistic fight sequences. The lead characters all excel in the roles: Lee plays Dragon Pak perfectly with his low-key sincerity; Gehring shines as the lieutenant driven to do the right thing despite an indifferent system; and Lode radiates a somewhat insane, offbeat intensity as the evil Therion. With its unusual look and shifting original soundtrack, this movie is worth checking out.

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DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! BUY ANOTHER DVD!
At first glance, I was excited to watch "Dragon and the Hawk," an interestingly packaged DVD with all the right graphics and cover art.
And it seemed like a good idea for a kung-fu movie - apart from the same old plot. Girl goes to America to find dream, gets lost, kung-fu master brother (Dragon - Julian Jung Lee) comes to America to find her, beats up bad guys, happy ending.
With plenty of wham-bam, in-your-face-action.
I'm sad to say that this move flops on all counts, even the action.
Barbara Gehring plays a police detective - Hawk - who teams up with Dragon to find the missing sister. They share a link - both of their sisters are missing.
Enter the bad guy. Trygve Lode is the scheming, stiff and stereotypical Therion who is concocting some super-soldier drug and testing it on girls his thugs nab off the street.
And thus we get the Dragon and Hawk fighting Therion's bad guys and trying to save the girls.
I've seen some very bad movies in my time, believe me. But even "Ishtar" had moments that were actually funny and "Little Nicky" had some great lines.
This move isn't even campy-funny. It's rotten. The camera work is boring - each fight seen is shot from the same high-angle crane shot - and the dialogue is so stiff I was begging for some Hong Kong filmmakers to come along and dub their own English actors' voices over these bozos.
And that's bad for some of these Americans, I tell you.
Besides the acting and action, I was very perturbed to hear unnecessary swearing. It's as if the scriptwriter decided that, "Oh, this goofy scene needs some more punch!" and then dropped awkward vulgarities into the script, just to get the "R" rating. Even the actors doing the swearing looked funny saying the words, as if they knew that not even in real life do people swear this weirdly.
The only redeeming quality is that the soundtrack seemed upbeat and the DVD's special features had a music video that was actually worth watching.
But a music video does not a DVD make.
Save your pennies. If this ever makes it onto cable TV, it will definitely be on some late-nite, make-fun-of-the-movie show.
But this isn't even Mystery Science Theater 3000 funny. It's just bad.
This movie deserves a solid D-.