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September 20, 2002

Dragonheart

Swords, Sorcery, and Dragons

Quaid plays a knight of the old school, who servers an evil king. He is teaching the king's son to be noble and to be a better man than his father. But in a battle the king is killed and the son mortally wounded. The queen takes her son to a dragon, who gives him half of his heart to save his life. But it is a bad bargain, as the new king now turns towards evil. Quaid realises that the dragon was responsible, but as he cannot recognise exactly which one it was, he decides to go on a quest to kill every dragon in the kingdom.

Coming upon the very last dragon, voiced by Sean Connery, he attempts to kill it. But they reach an understanding and form an unlikely partnership going around the country scamming local villagers. Then they decide to start a peasant revolt to depose the evil new king, which succeeds, and Quaid and a high spirited local girl become the new benevolent rulers. The last dragon is killed, but becomes a new star in the night sky along with his ancestors.

Some excellent dragon special effects turn a second rate story into quite an entertaining film. This will appeal to older children, as some of the fighting is very violent, but it's not strong enough to stand as an adults choice. Watch it for the dragon, and for the kings appalling British 70s glam rock style haircut, with accent to match.

AE0

Posted by se71 at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2002

Rush Hour

Updated Beverley Hills cop, with martial arts

The daughter of a Hong Kong diplomat is kidnapped in LA, and the FBI are on the case. Jackie Chan is Hong Kong's finest policeman, and the diplomat summons him to help. The FBI don't want this, so assign local maverick cop Tucker to keep him away from the case. So both men form an unlikely partnership and decide to solve the case together anyway.

The plot is rather unimportant, this film is all about Tucker's wisecracking, and Chans fights. But Tucker is no Eddie Murphy, being rather annoying after a very short time. And Chan is straight-jacketed by Hollywood who have made the stunts so safe they don't really have the flair and excitement of his Hong Kong titles. It's still quite an amusing film, but it's a mystery how it became a huge worldwide hit. Maybe it was because mainstream audiences hadn't seen Chan before, and were charmed by his brand of martial arts skills, and his humour.

AE0

Posted by se71 at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)