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Dragon and the Hawk DVD

Dragon and the Hawk DVD

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An action-packed martial arts film
Review: ... 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.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I call it as I see it....
Review: ...and I see a movie that follows closely in the footsteps of the lower budget Cynthia Rothrock movies.
Dragon and the Hawk has to be the worst movie I have seen in a long time. This martial arts film (using the phrase in its most liberal form), had sloppy, poorly coordinated fight scenes, little to no character development, and bad editing. Dont waste your time with this flick, yor better off watching the drunks behind 7-11 duke it out, its more entertaining and at least they can fight!
For the record...its LOUISIANA

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Generous rating.....
Review: ...because -2 stars was not an option.
This movie was such a terrible waste of time and money for both me to watch and whatever production company decided to fund this mess. I could list countless reasons as to why this movie should have never been made, but I will do not want to drone on with mindless, disjointed babble (a courtesy that D & H did not extend).
1. Bad acting- I don't think one person in this movie has ever acted professionally in their lifetime and if they did, its no wonder why this is the only gig they could get.
2. Terrible fights- The director of this movie should be ashamed for calling this movie a MARTIAL ARTS flick. I have seen some movies that can pass off with nitty-gritty fight scenes, but this movie had the most ridiculous fight coordination! It was lazy, thrown together and beyond amature. TEACH YOUR ACTORS/ STUNT PEOPLE TO THROW A PUNCH FOR CHRISTS SAKE!! (or at least for the sake of those CLAIMING to be stunt fighters) and I pray that this is nobodys day job.
I can't rip too much on the technical side of the movie because I applaud anyone who employs such "special" people to work as their crews. For that, I thank you and Jerry's Kids thank you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! BUY ANOTHER DVD!
Review: 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-.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nostalgia At Its Best!!!
Review: Dragon & Hawk is a very entertaining bit of film work by Mr. Mark Grove.

Destined to be a classic genre film, D&H takes the viewr aback to the earlier days of MA films. It has a very No Retreat; No Surrender-ish quality about it that I really enjoyed.

Action is good. Storyline is the "chinese brother comes to US to find lost sister" theme. It reads really well, considering it ts plotline has been done quite frequently.

Dragon Pak is an excellent martial artist and moves well on screen. Even Mr Grove makes his on screen cameo...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gehring shines
Review: Dragon and the Hawk had my nod for the years best action adventure picture. Barbara Gehring gives the performance of a lifetime in this thriller filmed in Denver. Enjoy it with pleasure.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You gotta See this!
Review: Dragon and the Hawk is like an early Jackie Chan movie,
before they went all Hollywood. It's got great martial
arts moves in it, one of my friends who saw it is a martial
arts instructor and he loved it, especially the fight
scenes. The actor who plays Therion made an especially
believable and scary bad guy, he was tall and imposing with
an Arnold Schwarzeneggeresque physique. I was impressed to
find out that, unlike many Hollywood movies, all the actors
did their own stunts and did them well. My favorite line
was "I'll take Candy!"

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You gotta See this!
Review: Dragon and the Hawk is like an early Jackie Chan movie,
before they went all Hollywood. It's got great martial
arts moves in it, one of my friends who saw it is a martial
arts instructor and he loved it, especially the fight
scenes. The actor who plays Therion made an especially
believable and scary bad guy, he was tall and imposing with
an Arnold Schwarzeneggeresque physique. I was impressed to
find out that, unlike many Hollywood movies, all the actors
did their own stunts and did them well. My favorite line
was "I'll take Candy!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW
Review: I have just seen the movie Dragon and Hawk. That was a good one. I have seen many action packed movies and this one is in a leage all its own. The carators are all very professional and well intuned with their parts. The action scenes are all action and more action. The caractor "Dragon Pak" looking for his sister and the evil scientist with his scary eye's. That was a trip. I would really love to see more of Mark Groves work. He really knows what he is doing. My suggestion to everyone is sit back grab a bowl of popcorna dn enjoy. This movie will capture your heart and send you adrenaline through the roof. Its the movie to watch. If you love action pretty women and nasty fights this is it. All in one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dragon and the Hawk
Review: 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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