Customer Reviews

Dragon Heat

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

DRAGON HEAT (original title: DRAGON SQUAD) is directed by Daniel Lee. This film is internationally produced (co-produced by Steven Seagal, I heard) and released way back in 2005. This is an action film that really looks very good, it contains hyper-accelerated action footages with a professional style of quality. It is a pity that the mentioned quality doesn't match its plot and direction. Don't be misled by the dvd cover, MAGGIE Q is NOT the main lead actress in this film, Dragon Dynasty probably only wanted to capitalize on her recent fame in U.S. outings; DIE HARD 4, MI-3 and Balls of Fury.

A team of young interpol agents, Andy, Vanness and Cheung arrives in Hong Kong to produce testimony in a trial against a local crimelord Tiger Duen with local cops Lok and Suet together. However, during prisoner transport to the courthouse, a ruthless mercenary team led by Petros (Michael Biehn, Terminator) assaults the armed convoy. Interpol is humiliated while the op is led by a veteran cop Kong Lung(Sammo Hung), who recognizes the group is made up of known international terrorists. Kong is very reluctant to get involved in another operation until he gets inspired by his young charges who rises to the occasion. They come together to form "DRAGON SQUAD" in the hunt for Petros. The streets of Hong Kong become a backdrop in a battle of wills and wits in a cat and mouse game between the two teams that engage in urban warfare.

DRAGON HEAT could have been the Hong Kong equivalent of a Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay film, only with a lot less "snappy" character banter and little sense of sly humor(Bruckheimer and Bay ROCKS, by the way). You can tell that the direction has the Bruckheimer influence with its cool quick cuts, while the gunfights still have that John Woo inspiration. However, even with its very (so) stylized and energetic action scenes, the heavy-handed direction can't disguise the truth; the movie doesn't "click". Hong Kong is renowned for "bullet ballet" but lately, it has been going towards melodrama, much in the same direction as Korean cinema. It is nowadays rare for a Hong Kong film to be loaded with bullet ballet action scenes, a lot of which DO entertain in a certain kind of way. The action is over-directed that it becomes distracting, with a lot of quick cuts as futile attempts to make a routine and mediocre action scene look sleek. Realism flies out the window during these scenes; MAJOR characters only get shot ONLY in moments to generate wanna-be dramatic moments(it doesn't succeed). Y'know what's most amusing, the mercenary bad guys are DEADLY accurate sharpshooters until they face our young heroes then they keep missing their target. Both sides unload enough ammo to fight a war. Well, I'm used to the usual "movie magic", but it's so fairly obvious in this film because of the heavy-handed direction.

Also, much like a Hollywood film, Dragon Heat give defining personal issues and "baggages" to carry for each of its major characters but it doesn't help much. The characters are uniformly uninteresting, and only achieves a little empathy or identity because of the actors playing them. Example; Sammo Hung, Simon Yam and even Michael Biehn carry some weight, while Vanness Wu(Kumite) and Shawn Yu are dull, basically one-dimensional. Hotties Maggie Q(Naked weapon) and Isabella Leong(Isabella, Spider Lilies) have limited screen time but they both serve well as eye-candy.

Sammo Hung is a legendary icon in Hong Kong cinema. I wonder why would he involve himself with a film so mediocre as this after the huge success of "SPL". Chin Kar-Lok is the action director of the film, it is almost unbelievable how such acclaimed talents can be in a film like this. I guess the director and contracts may have a lot to do with it. Oh, well..

I (regrettably) own the 2-disc dual layer Hong Kong release from Mei-Ah Entertainment. Dragon Dynasty should utilize the same transfer.
PICTURE/AUDIO: ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN. Exceptional transfer. Natural colors, very sharp and clean. Black levels are very good. The dvd's technical aspects are near flawless. 5.1 DD/5.1 DTS Cantonese/Mandarin w/ English track. English subs are very good.
In closing:
DRAGON HEAT aka: DRAGON SQUAD may still entertain some viewers with its numerous stylized action sequences. The hollow plot and flat characterization makes it laughable, but NOT in the same "legendary" cheesiness of "GEN-Y Cops", "Catwoman" or "Batman & Robin". (There are some films that are so bad that they're good) It is a very pretentious attempt to add some depth into the storyline with canned melodrama that is neither touching or dramatic.
To its credit (at the very least), the film doesn't take itself too seriously, perhaps "bad style" does make a movie somewhat diverting.
RENT IT! (2.5 stars)

Good synergy in the film. Decent acting overall especially by Michael Biehn. Seems to run a little long but the climax is worth it. Ending is kinda cheesy but still solid

This is one of the worst Hong Kong movies I've ever seen.
It's boring. It contains bad action and fighting scenes. The plot is ridiculous. In short, it's a waste of money.

This movie is terrible the plot sucks and it is overdramatic. The acting here sucked and the heroes in this films were too one dimensional. The action was crappy than anyone can imagine and the ending OH! what was that about it was so freakin corny. If you liked the film you really have no taste in films and don't ever recommened anyone films cause most likely they will suck more thatn your taste in films. By far the worst film to hit Dragon dynasty.

Dragon Heat is a difficult movie to review as I feel I was more disapointed in it because I expected more from the cast. Michael Biehn, Maggie q, Sammo Hung, among others are all from a pretty great background. Unfortunately this movie doesn't use them very well. Instead it feels they were in the movie because they owed someone a favor rather than a result of choice. The story is pretty week, the action passable, and the conclusion left me very unsatisfied. While there were some moments worth watching, I can't help but feel that with the level of talent involved, more could have been done. I suggest it as a rental or for those needing to fill the gap in their dragon dynasty collection.

I found this movie to be one that promised what it was not able to provide.While there are some good martial arts people in it the movie, it does not really show case their skills. The stortline was strange and confusing at times,making it more of a labor than plesure to watch it.

I'll start this review right off by saying that this movie plays like a live-action video game... filled with a young, hip cast that you never get to know any better then the description from their dossiers in the opening (for instance James "The Sniper," Wang "The Driver," etc.) and action scenes filmed completely for style with no real substance, this is the first Dragon Dynasty film that's completely passable. Besides the aforementioned cast, the rest of the characters are rounded out by cardboard cutouts whose only real purpose is to fire at our protagonists and give them something to fire back at (while looking ultra cool and tough). I've got nothing against flat out action films with little to no characterization from time to time but here they fill every sequence in between these fire fights with attempts at highly emotional scenarios (the daughter that wants nothing to do with her father, past romances, paralyzed family members, etc.) that are so cliched and forced that you find yourself rolling your eyes rather than gaining any sympathy towards the characters involved. There is allot of action here but beyond the fantastic finale featuring Sammo Hung in a machette duel(!), it's all by the books shooting-back-and-forth-for-15-minutes-without-anybody-except-unknown-cops-being-killed gunplay (with that really frenetic and shaky camera work). The only thing that did bring a smile to my face was the 30 second scene early in the film where grizzled vets Sammo and Goron Liu say a few words to each other (then Liu disappears for the rest of the film?). It should be noted that Bey Logan has a bit part here and also co-produced the film... oh and did I mention he's also the Vice President of Asian Aquisitions for Dragon Dynasty (think that has anything to do with this release?). So a rare misstep from the fine folks over at Dragon Dynasty that is probably still worth picking up to help support their future releases (Dreadnaught any month now!?).

All the other reviews here are dead on target. The film certainly caters to a younger crowd with its emphasis on style over substance. I don't even know where to begin with this; I'm a fan of Hong Kong cinema, blood operas, gun fu, etc., but this movie left me quite unsatisfied.

Let's start with the bad so we can just get that out of the way. As other reviewers have said, it's definitely 'over-directed.' It seems like they had a series of key frames in mind when they produced shots, and decided to throw the rest of the movie around them. Editing this movie must have taken an insane amount of time, as each minute of action has at least 20 cuts. This is in stark contrast to a lot of Asian martial arts flicks where they tend to show fights with as few cuts as possible. The end result is basically action looking faster and more furious, but caters to the ADD and non-epileptic crowd with its continually changing points of view, slow/fast motion and excessive zooming in and out. You know there's something wrong when an action sequence CURRENTLY being shot/fought looks like a training montage. This might make some of the actors look like they can fight/shoot, but then it totally dilutes the great fights of those who can (Sammo Hung).

The story is barely there, and like another reviewer stated, any emoting is purely on the strength of the actors, whom I have seen in better movies. Since each faction had at least 5-6 main characters to figure out, they could have cut half the cast and the story would have been better for it. Instead, they rely on several flashbacks for each character at least once, 2-3 times for the more interesting ones, to tell their stories. Thank goodness for the video game style bio shots and that each person had a different specialty and/or nationality, or I simply would never get them straightened out...and this is coming from someone who knows the names and faces of more than half the cast! I was actually pleasantly surprised at Michael Biehn's performance, which added some depth to a character who isn't supposed to be sympathized with. It was also a treat to see Li Bing Bing play such a sweet character after her fabulously nasty performance as a bad gal in the recent Forbidden Kingdom (a much better movie, by the way). Maggie Q is underutilized in an almost throwaway role (I only know her as 'da sniper'), and it seems like they tried to get Sammo Hung in there more, but since there are a dozen other stories to tell, they could only do so much.

As for the good points, there are some gorgeous location shots and cinematography. There are some scenes that are nice tributes to Michael Mann's work as well, or at least reminiscent of his work. In addition, they also obviously had some kind of budget, and they do put it to good use at various locations. Although at times the MTV/video game style shots and cuts are annoying, they are professionally done and were cool the first time or ten.

In conclusion, it seems almost like a movie trailer that they decided to make feature film-length. It might be something to see once just to say you've seen it, but I'm not sure I'd be showing it to friends who've never seen it before, since there's much better fare I'd rather use my friend-time credit on...

...and in all fairness, if this was a video game I'd SO play it!

I'm giving it a generous 3/5 stars, because I do like a lot of the actors. Rent it.

This movie is absolutely worthless - the editing will give you epileptic shock due to its amateurish handi-cam manuevers and jump-cuts. The plot is a cliched joke, and the "action" consists of a few subpar gun battles and some trashy fighting sequences. Steer clear - Dragon Dynasty should never have picked this one up.

This movie is VERY underrated. It is by no means the greatest HK action movie. Yet, most are very harsh in reviewing this film. I would watch any HK movie like this anyday over crappy U.S. remakes like "Bangkok Dangerous" or any other crappy U.S. so-called action film.