Dragon Inn
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Movie Reviews of Dragon Inn
Movie Review: Dragon Inn
Summary: 5 Stars
Another darkly funny movie with some great martial arts action. The characters are vivid and quite colorful.Movie Review: 3.5, but great music, great acting, and an ending that will never be forgotten boosts it up to a 4.
Summary: 4 Stars
Now I can't comment on the original, but king hu definitely did not make movies like this. Now if you like movies like the swordsman series than you will probably dig this. I thought that this movie was a little less than action packed. But that was just because the story was a little less than boring, I really needed more action. That is not to say that the acting was not good, just storywise it was very weak. The action though actually features pretty good swordfights throughout. And in one fight we get the confirmation that brigitte's skin looks very good. I would have liked to see more but it is just as good dreaming of her. I can easily imagine what she looks like, she has... Ok, well the reason most people will buy this is for donnie yen, but I bought it for briggite lin and I ended up getting a little more than I expected. Now the political overtones that ric myers speaks about all throughout the commentary I think is true. I don't know if a lot of the things he is suggesting are true or false, but the movie is at least very different in this way. We have all these swordmasters, but we don't have like this one guy who is the master. Well I guess we do, but he doesn't show up until the very end and the part where I saw political meaning is where the whole of them could do nothing to him but it took teamwork and luck to win. Don't really mean to give anything away but I definitely think there is something to be read into their. And man oh man donnie would have made a great bad guy if he did it more than like twice. So all in all still a pretty good film with stuff at the end that may cause seizures.
And of course elvis tsui shows up, what chinese movie is he not in? You mat know him as the guy with the mansion in butterfly sword and chinese torture chamber story, but I am 99.9% sure that this is KAM KANG. There is a reason he always seems like a really good actor, cause he is. he is not just seasoned, he can seriously act. You may remember kam kang from Master of the flying guillotine, he was the master. Now if anyone wants to prove me wrong then bring it cause I haev done my research. But this guy has literally appeared in something like 200-300 movies.
Now the picture for this film is very good. It is a tai seng release so there are scratches. We are also getting 15 more minutes and you always gotta love that. The sound quality is slightly better than average, and NO 5.1 sound option. The trailers are the same old. But the filmographies are very professionally presented. VERY ggod short biographies and limited filmography, but VERY good for a usual throw away special feature. The commentary is ok and has some good info on the stars and briefly discusses king hu's original. He talks about tsui hark being great but my opinion is he is far from that. He has another 10 or so great films to make before he can be considered great. It's true that he has worked on many movies, but his stuff is unique and I respect him for that. But it is not unique enough of the time and he has made some of the worst movies ever so it goes both ways. And ric myers does make a rare really good point on how this film was filmed silently. 99% of chinese action movies are filmed silently, even TODAY it is still being done. Hong Kong knows how to make movies cheaper than we do and they sacrifice a lot. Our movies get brought overseas sometimes but we don't hear about it. Of course crouching, daggers, and hero came over but they were more expensive and more widely known. This movie is a cheapo just like all the rest except it manages to do better than most. When they make these, they make it for kong kong, but it is also going to be distibuteed in lik ea hundred other countries.
So I would tell you to watch this for the 2 hotass women and the end fight, but more for b lin in particular. And IT IS R-rated for a reason. Enjoy.
Movie Review: The Ending makes the movie
Summary: 4 Stars
I would've given this a 3 but I loved the last scene! I still smile when I think of it. Its not bad overall and will keep your interest.Movie Review: Great Action Sequences, Mediocre Movie
Summary: 3 Stars
Dragon Inn is a mediocre movie. Besides the amazing flying sword fighting sequences (a la Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), there really isn't much going for it. The plot isn't that good, the actors are `okay', and the DVD is low quality.Dragon Inn starts out with a rebel leader getting slain by a powerful Eunuch (Donnie Yen), who sends the rebel's children deep into the desert. The children are then rescued by the rebel's friends (Bridget Lin, Tony Leung), and are brought to Dragon Inn. The eunuch sends men to search for the children, hoping to kill the remaining rebels with them. The rebels are then stranded with some of the eunuch's minions in Dragon Inn by a ferocious sandstorm.
Much of the movie is comprised of amazing action sequences. These scenes are as good as those in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, with combatants constantly defying gravity. Some of these action sequences contain a lot of blood and gore. In one fight, a man's flesh is cut off, exposing his bones. While the violence doesn't look very realistic, the movie still would most likely have received an R rating in the US.
The rest of the movie is `okay' at best. The acting really isn't that great (it never is in HK films), the plot gets pretty weird (there are subplots involving cannibalism, etc.), and despite claims the cinematography is really that great. Sure, there are some great shots (mostly during action sequences), but most of it is average material.
The DVD is pretty low quality. Most US VHS tapes are clearer than this. The picture is unclear, and is filled with numerous scratches.
If you liked Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon because of it's beautiful cinematography, interesting plot developments, and excellent soundtrack look somewhere else. If all you care about is action, Dragon Inn is your movie.
Movie Review: Good story, good humors, good and bad actions and special effects. not so good transfer
Summary: 3 Stars
This film was not a direct film to digital video transfer. That's why the picture quality comes out mediocre. It was video tape off the projector's screen to cut cost as there are probably a lot of piracy in poor countries like China and Hong Kong.
The projector's probably use auto-iris. That's why the picture comes out too dark in some part and too bright in some part...but the bright part is acceptable while the dark part isn't. The framerate doesn't sync eihter because the video camera recorded at different timing and different framerate than the film being playback on the projector.
I give the story 4/5. Action 3/5. Overall Acting 4/5. Special effects 3/5. Picture quality is 2.5/5 because its not a direct transfer. Sound 2.5/5 too. Some part of the audio sound quite decent while other sound quite harsh and distorted. Overall English dub is average too.