...it would be misleading (if gracious) to focus only on Dragon Blade's handful of redeeming aspects. In total, it's a ridiculous drag of a movie...

| Jan 14, 2021

John Cusack and Adrien Brody co-star with Jackie Chan in this messy 'hamfest'...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 23, 2020

The narrative is notably bizarre, with a smorgasbord of never-ending tribulations and lingering speeches - however, brush that aside for a film that relies on the spirit and merits of its actors and crew.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 9, 2019

Chan demonstrates his perennial physicality, but it is hard to tell why Cusack and Brody became involved in a project where their acting talents are so forcibly stifled by an underdeveloped, porous script that is riddled with clichés.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 8, 2019

[Dragon Blade is] a compact epic that espouses peace and interracial/international harmony while engaging in enormous amounts of blade-wielding, butt-kicking and blowing stuff up. It's kind of wonderful in an insane way.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 14, 2018

Dragon Blade feels like a dispiriting way for even seasoned bargain-bin trawlers to be seeing in the New Year.

| Dec 13, 2016

Botched promise abounds, starting with the wasted potential of John Cusack's Roman and Jackie Chan's Chinese guard uniting against Brody's evil Tiberius.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 12, 2016

Dragon Blade offers a daftly entertaining throwback to historical epics of the 1960s.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 18, 2016

Handsome production design and sweeping battle vistas lend a touch of class, with Chan directing the action scenes with trademark brio.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 17, 2016

Chan brings martial artistry to the fight, Cusack his siege skills, and the the film overall is a mishmash of languages, styles and tones.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 15, 2016

There are nice moments, but this is pure bombast, and Chan's natural action flair is not given free rein.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 14, 2016

This generic offering simply doesn't transcend the tropes of the genre at hand.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 13, 2016

Cusack does a good impression of an estate agent having a midlife crisis, while Brody adds to his gallery of eye-rollingly awful performances by going full Tony Montana.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 11, 2016

Epic in scope is 'Dragon Blade' -- but not the best film Chan has made.

| Sep 6, 2015

The film barely passes the entertainment mustard.

| Sep 5, 2015

This Chinese battle epic features exciting, show-stopping fight scenes, but the storytelling in between is almost non-existent, as if lazily looking for ways to kill the time.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 4, 2015

Not an ideal Chan vehicle but, on the other hand, it gains a lot from his ecstatic presence.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 4, 2015

For those who ever wondered what it would be like to see John Cusack and Jackie Chan engage in a swordfight (both of you), here is "Dragon Blade."

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 4, 2015

In Dragon Blade, East meets West in a murky, mediocre muddle.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 4, 2015

The whole plot is incoherent, and it's depicted almost entirely through montages and crossfades.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 3, 2015