1990 Directed by Warren A. Stevens
In the future, large corporations earn millions of dollars by staging gladiatorial fights to the death that are shown on worldwide television. One day, however, a fighter who is scheduled to hunt and kill an opponent in the Arizona desert decides he's had enough, and makes a run for it. His opponent is instructed to track him down and kill him.
Guerreiros Mortais, Lucha de titanes, Lohikäärmepeli
USA
USA
In the future, thanks to an idea cooked up by Michael Paré, corporations pass their time by putting on deathmatches between combatants and wagering on the outcomes. There have been many before (we won't see them), and this time it's the great swordsman (we are told) Falchion (Paul Coufos) versus mail-wearing ax-man Lochaber (Robert Z'Dar). For a little added spice, or out of an abundance of stupidity, the battlefield is in the middle of a national park where anyone visiting can be killed. Falchion's had enough and leaves, causing Lochaber to chase him down and kill innocents to get him to fight. Falchion picks up a running crew in Jericho (George Buck Flower), Sandra (Alexa Hamilton) and Moochow (Charles (yes,…
"This is dragonfight!"
No, there are no dragons in Dragonfight but James Hong does give a speech about how his ancestors are dragons, which is better than nothing. It takes place in current day, capitalist America, where two rival corporations make a friendly bet over a duel to the death between two men who are dropped into the desert with a sword and axe (Michael Paré and Robert Z'Dar, who spends the whole movie in chainmail) while a bunch of rich spectators watch the action via CCTV (how that works technologically, we are never shown). Running a mere 79 minutes, it's quick and it's narrated by a drunk George "Buck" Flower and Charles Napier plays a ranger named Moochow.
Irgendwie hat mich das Cover und die Rahmenhandlung angesprochen doch, was einem hier als Endzeit/Mittelalter Filmchen verkauft wird, ist wirklich der letzte Rotz.
Die Welt besteht nur noch aus mächtigen Industriekonzernen, die ihren Dreck mittels "Dragonfighter" entfernen lassen. Lochaber ist einer der Größten von Ihnen und beginnt schon bald das Schwert gegen seine Meute zu einzusetzen ohne Rücksicht auf die Verluste.
Ja, so ungefähr war die Story, denn die ist sowieso ein unlogisches Durcheinander, wobei das man World Building komplett verkackt hat.
Hier soll Mittelalter und Zukunft eins sein mit dem Ausblick auf Arizonas Wüstenlandschaft. Man bewegt nur innerhalb Lagerhallen oder kleinen Räumen, während man für die Außenaufnahmen sich einfach die nächste Gebirge/Schlucht sucht.
Robert Z'Dar passt irgendwie gar nicht…
Can't be bothered with proper pacing, storytelling or any kind of reasonable spacial awareness, but somehow DRAGONFIGHT is entertaining nonsense. Robert Z'Dar and some other guy chase each other around the desert. Note: Contains no actual dragons.
It's got Robert Z'Dar in chainmail, wielding a battleaxe. Sometimes that's all you need.
This is some highly entertaining nonsense! 😁
This wastes no time and just jumps right into this ridiculous story, almost confusingly... There's a lot of moving pieces suddenly and it took me a bit to kind of piece together what all was going on. Some stuff still didn't really make sense to me, but it was a lot of fun anyway!
There's a lot of fun actors in this one 👍 lots of recognizable faces! Z'Dar, Paré, Cortese, Napier, Hong, Aleong, and good ol' George Buck Flower!
Some more random thoughts and notes:
Paré's name is Michael in the movie 😉
Z'Dar in chainmail swinging a battle-ax is pretty great 👍
They probably should have actually chosen a desolate, abandoned…
A mashup of The Running Man, Highlander, The Terminator and Friday the 13th, with none of the verve, energy or gore of any of those films.
The synopsis says it's set in the future, but they clearly say in the movie that it's present day 1990. The synopsis also says that "dragonfight" is when two giant corporations televise a battle to the death between their chosen champions to a worldwide audience. This is also a lie - the only people watching are a handful of executives in a boardroom, among them James Hong (playing Japanese, because what's the difference, right?) and Michael Pare, who once upon a time would have been down in the action but clearly wanted to sit…
This review is purely from a so bad it's good perspective.
Wasn't expecting much from this, and it turned out to be an absolute gem. This film is ALL OVER the fucking place. Fantasy? Scifi? Neil Breen? Macho redneck slugfest? Funny enough, the only thing it doesn't have is a dragon.
What else?
-Drunken narrator
-Playmate Necromancy
-Evil corporations
-Airwolf music
-Japanese James Hong
-Charles Napier in a Suzuki Samurai
-Everybody calling this one guy baby for no reason, until you see his name in the credits is actually Baby
-Z'Dar in the least flattering coif possible
-A plot that will confuse the ever loving shit out of your poor brain
-Pretty sure all the weapon fights had no choreography
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PIM RATING:
Cheese: 10/10
Bad Acting: 8/10
Fun to Crap On: 10/10
Ineptitude: 9/10
WTF Factor: 10/10
Not Boring: 9/10
OVERALL: 9.33
The title is misleading, there is no dragons fighting in this movie. But there is Robert Z’dar, he’s some kind of dragon, so not totally misleading.
It is laughable with bad fights, bad dialogue and a lot of filler. It’s almost boring when nothing’s happening but when something does happen, you laugh almost immediately.
There’s a lot of nonsense from a direction’s perspective, things that you’re not supposed to do if you’re a director of movies in general, but I guess it makes it more entertaining if unexciting.
Micheal Paré, James Wong, Charles Napier and an helicopter is also in there.
