Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2/4
"Dragon Blade" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 09/08/2017
A lost Roman legion encounters a ruined city on The Silk Road and after being invited inside by its pacifist commander, they unite to prevent an incursion by the corrupt ruler who is pursuing them.
Dragon Blade is a fairly typical Chinese historical action movie with one obvious exception; the inclusion of American stars John Cusack and Adrien Brody and the Roman army. To the little boy in me, there is something a little irresistible about the idea of legionnaires battling Asian martial artists and it provides plenty of visual spectacle and glittering armour to behold. The script - as ever - is the weak link; the plotting is episodic and often unconvincing, the dialogue clumsy and overly sentimental and there are many eye-rollingly corny moments. Cusack and Brody's pantomime villain …
Rating of
1.5/4
Bush League attempt at an epic
Cavernstones - wrote on 06/23/2015
This production tries to be an epic, but comes across as a subpar undertaking. All the elements are there for a good base story line. Enemy armies set aside their differences to work with one another to achieve something good, and then ally against the murderous evil villain emperor that has usurped the Roman leadership. The problem is there seem to be extraneous pieces the writers could have just left out of the film and other places where more was needed. Too much time was wasted on long sequences where we see and are supposed to empathize with the emotions the characters are feeling as the score music takes over the sound. The special effects are pathetic, and I mean this sincerely in that home computers could render some of the stuff wrought here and look more believable. John …
