All good things come in threes…
NOTE: Netflix is taking down virtually all of their MGM titles on May 1st, so I thought it might be fun to see how many I can watch in the next two weeks, and then post quick, little hit-and-run reviews here. Hope you enjoy, and if you want to see any of these movies and have Netflix, better watch ’em now!
Kill a Dragon seems like a cheap cash-in on the Bruce Lee/kung fu craze of the seventies, but it actually beats out Bruce Lee’s superstardom by at least half a decade. Featuring three of the coolest cats to ever grace the silver screen, Kill a Dragon is a modestly enjoyable romp that’s saved by its leading men. Jack Palance plays Rick Masters, a soldier of fortune bumming around Macau who’s hired by Hong Kong villagers to help them smuggle out explosives they found that actually belong to uber-criminal Nico Patrai, played by Fernando Lamas. Palance starts out the movie by going from being balls-deep in Alizia Gur to fending off two attackers, and his performance only gets cooler from there; Masters is the kind of guy who wears a cravat even in the blazing Asian sun. He hires a few old pals to help in his endeavor, chief among them Aldo Ray’s Vigo, an old mercenary pal who now moonlights as a tour guide. Ray is always a welcome presence, but sadly just doesn’t get nearly enough to do here, and never gets in on the fun scenery-chewing that goes on between Palance and Lamas. And speaking of Lamas, he’s pretty fantastic as the sleazy Patrai, and he gets a handful of awesome scenes with Palance where the two tear into the screen like it’s a cut of New York steak. The relationship between the two characters is pretty fascinating, as they can go from old friends to nasty rivals at the drop of a hat.
In the end, the kung fu is so-so and the plot drags way too much for a movie with an hour and a half runtime, but Kill a Dragon gets by due to its three fantastic leads.
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