The saddest thing is that this film, having begun as an effective parody of kung fu movies and Hollywood mysticism, degenerates into a series of fights and huge rock video clips.

| Feb 14, 2025

... among many other things, implies an awareness of the history of martial arts cinema, working in aspects so that knowledgeable fans can feel seen.

| Sep 22, 2023

This is a classic! This film is so damn fun and I feel like I have the "glow" after watching this.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 7, 2022

This is like the black Roadhouse to me, which is more a positive than a negative. It is very entertaining albeit completely absurd.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 7, 2022

The Last Dragon tries to do a great many things and does none of them well.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 16, 2021

...has been saddled with an often egregiously over-the-top feel that slowly-but-surely invalidates its few positive elements.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 6, 2019

The charm of The Last Dragon, and key to its lasting potency as a cult object, is how it approaches a conversation about race with humor, even kindness. Its self-deprecation forgives a multitude of sins.

| Dec 21, 2018

Taimak and Vanity come to the screen with a great deal of presence and likeability. Schultz brings energy and style to both the fight scenes and the musical moments, mostly staying out of their way and avoiding fast cutting and clunky choreography.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 21, 2018

Michael Schultz tries hard but can't quite manage to tie the varied elements of action, romance, comedy and musical video together, though as entertainment, this is engaging enough.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 12, 2018

An enjoyable pastiche of martial arts, romance, music, and video.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 12, 2018

There aren't many surprises, but the momentum never lets up.

| Dec 12, 2018

The Last Dragon is first and foremost a romantic comedy, and a very sweet one at that, and that's why its martial-arts combat scenes work so well. We've been given enough time to care about who's kicking the stuffing out of whom.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 12, 2018

It's slick Motown stuff, shrewdly kept on a brightly colored comic strip level, so that its silly plot and wild swings between dancing feet and flying fists don't seem to matter as much as the attractiveness of the two leads.

| Apr 28, 2018

An intoxicating blend of comedy, kung fu, corny romance, special effects and rock videos, it's as electrically sleepless as the New York it's set against.

| Jan 4, 2018

Say what you want about it, but I still love it.

| Aug 6, 2015

A remake could bring more cohesion to a film with an identity crisis. But it also might not strike the funky, daffy sweet spot in which "The Last Dragon" takes an inner-city poke at the hero's journey without ever taking the piss out of it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 9, 2015

Though the humor in Dragon often falls flat (a Chinese fortune cookie factor is named "Sum Dum Goy," for instance) and the music is hardly memorable, the movie is a real charmer, full of heart and a lot of soul.

| Oct 30, 2008

Aka Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon and a sure sign that somewhere along the way the man from Hitsville USA lost it badly.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 14, 2005

It's so entertaining that I could almost recommend it -- if it weren't for an idiotic subplot about a gangster and his girlfriend, a diversion that brings the movie to a dead halt every eight or nine minutes.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 23, 2004