This martial arts action movie should be titled Latin "dragons," because most every fighter in it is a latino badass. The hero is Fabian Carrillo, a martial arts champion in real life, cast as a former hit-man for the CIA. We see him in his past life, assassinating whomever the government told him to, but leaving him scarred and wanting to do right. His brother is a tough L.A. street cop, played by Luis Ramos. Together they are trying to protect the residents of the barrio from a gang of vatos working for Gary Busey and his main enforcer, Lorenzo Lamas.The movie is non-stop action with shootouts, street fights and assassinations -- with the violence mostly latino on latino. Carillo and Ramos are both well-muscled studs whose brutal skills raise the body count early and often. The vatos are led by Robert LaSardo, whose ripped physique is covered in gang tats, and who kills without remorse. His crew is, likewise, street-muscle bodybuilders. Though impressive, their size doesn't help when Carillo raids the vatos's headquarters and, in a series of awesome fights, slays most of these inked latino musclemen with his bare hands.There are crosses and double crosses, including when Busey coldly discards his henchman LaSardo by ordering Lamas to put a bullet in the vato's head so he can set up Carillo for the murder. Lamas carries out the assignment, leaving the alpha dog's body on display for the cops – including Carillo's brother – to find. His arrest leads to a series of showdowns and more surprise double crosses, with Carillo first taking down a huge anglo biker named "Mad Dog" (pretty much the only non-latino he ices in this flick,) before savagely executing Lamas in a vicious fight. Finally the evil Busey is made to pay the ultimate price at the lethal hands of the Latin Dragon.This movie might be the first martial arts flick to feature a goodlooking latino stud as a kickass hero and Carillo definitely fits the bill. Though a villain, LaSardo's powerful physical presence spotlights him, especially in his fight scenes. In fact, most of the fights feature built young latinos whose martial arts moves and sculpted bodies make for some convincing action. Whether you are latino or not, if you enjoy martial arts, you'll like "Latin Dragon."
... View MoreWell what can I say? The "actors" in this film (wow, that term is becoming more and more misleading all the time) are really some of the worst I've ever seen: Fabian I-forgot-his-last-name is just plain pathetic, Lorenzo Lamas (is being his normal self), and I still don't know what the crap happened to Gary Busey!The fighting is decent at best, but they could really have played up Fabian's foot work a lot more instead of shifting cameras to compensate for what I believe is bad choreography.The only good thing about this movie is that the fighting is fast paced and decent and the girl is hot beyond belief, and that is not enough to make a movie worth watching. Really can't recommend this one.
... View MoreThis movie sucked absolutely sucked. It came on TV and the only reason I watched it was because I was sick and couldn't really do much. The acting was bad all around. You'd expect more from someone like Gary Busey. The movie was low budget horribly acted and in fact made me sicker. I knew from the title Latin Dragon and the first I dunno 5 minutes that this was a stinker. I was really unimpressed by everything the plot was predictable and I've seen better fight scenes in a Steven Segal movie. You expect the good guy to roll up on a Harley Davidson but this guy nope he's on a toy bike a Kawasaki. To me that does not scream butt kicking' its more like i dunno guy who teaches Karate at the local YMCA and thats exactly what the fighting looked like. Like they payed a guy a hundred bucks to come on the set and teach these guys basic karate. They should've also hired an acting coach cause they couldn't get that right either. This movie was a real disappoint a couple of no body's Gary Busey and Lorenzo Lamas. Oh how the mighty have fallen (Gary Busey that is Lorenzo Lamas has always been a crap actor)!
... View MoreMan, I sure did love Billy Jack when I was a kid and "Everybody Loves Raymond" is one funny show. So, as I sat watching this movie I kept thinking to myself, "Gosh, this sure seems familiar in a really odd, totally indirect sort of way."And then it hit me.The hero looks like Ray Romano and the avenging retired soldier aspect of his character reminded me of Billy Jack. Then you've got some bad guys making everyone miserable and rich folks with money providing money to the bad guys to make everyone miserable. I mean, it's not EXACTLY like Billy Jack but if Billy Jack ever made it to East L.A. this is exactly how he'd handle things.Of course he wouldn't ride in on a burgundy red Kawasaki (!). No self respecting tough guy would.
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