Double Dragon (film)

Double Dragon
File:Double dragonposter.jpg
Directed by	James Yukich
Written by	Michael Davis Peter Gould Mark Brazill
Starring	Robert Patrick Mark Dacascos Scott Wolf Julia Nickson Kristina Malandro Wagner as 'Lash' John Mallory Asher Leon Russom and Alyssa Milano as 'Marian'
Cinematography	Gary B. Kibbe
Edited by	Florent Retz
Music by	Jay Ferguson
Distributed by	Gramercy Pictures
Release date	November 4, 1994
Running time	95 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English

Double Dragon is a 1994 live-action film adaptation of the video game franchise of the same name. This film was produced starring Mark Dacascos as Jimmy Lee and Scott Wolf as Billy Lee, along with Alyssa Milano as Marian Delario and Robert Patrick as Koga Shuko, the primary antagonist. In the movie, Jimmy and Billy Lee are only described as brothers, presumably to explain the differences in ethnicity, rather than twins. It was directed by James Yukich and written by the team of Paul Dini (of Batman: The Animated Series and others) and Neal Shusterman. The film takes place in a post earthquake Los Angeles, now referred to as "New Angeles".

Plot summary

The movie starts out with a close up of the dragon medallion with Koga Shuko's (Robert Patrick) voice over telling how the medallion came to be and why it is split in two pieces.

Cut to a monk village somewhere in China, where the residents are under attack by a group of ninjas looking for the dragon medallion, only to discover that the monks' tongues have been cut out to prevent them from revealing the location of the medallion. One ninja, Lash, notices a villager fleeing and she gives chase following him into cavern dressed as a shrine where the medallion is located. After retrieving the medallion, she reports back to Shuko via satellite link.

Back in New Angeles (Los Angeles after the big quake of 2007), Shuko reveals his plans to have total domination of the city, stating that the quake was like a trumpets blow "heralding [his] arrival". He then discovers that Lash only recovered one half of the medallion and berates her for it. He places the medallion in his fist and turns into a shadowy, wraith-like figure and screams at Lash to find him the other half.

The second half of the medallion is revealed to be in the possession of Satori Imada, caretaker of Billy and Jimmy Lee, who are in the middle of a martial arts tournament. The match is going well until Billy's antics get the best of him and cost them the match and, consequently, the prize money as well. After a smart remark from the winning team, Billy jumps on them followed by Jimmy, and shortly the entire arena is fighting each other.

After a short news segment, basically setting up the city's curfew and the LAPD's truce with the gangs, Team Lee find themselves out after curfew and in gang territory. Billy eyes a girl leaning into the hood of a car and begs Jimmy to pull over saying that she is his type. After parking, the girl stands up and pulls off her wig revealing she is actually a guy in a skirt. Just as Jimmy quips that she is Billy's type, their car is surrounded by Mohawk gang members, led by Bo Abobo (Nils Allen Stewart). His sidekick, Hawk, demands $50 from them but Abobo sees something he likes better than cash: the dragon medallion. He tries to take it from Satori as Jimmy and Billy tell her to let him have it, but she refuses because "it has sentimental value". Abobo finally pulls it from her neck, but she stabs him in the hand. As Hawk laughs at his partner's misfortune, the Lee Brothers and Satori escape. Abobo and Hawk give chase in their truck, determined to collect their toll. The pursuit goes on for several minutes until Billy puts an aerosol can into the combustion chamber of the car's afterburner engine. They end up down a dead end alley where Abobo and Hawk finally meet up with them. As Abobo jumps out of the truck, he unknowingly drops something. Billy and Jimmy prepare to put up a fight, but the PowerCorps appear from the shadows and drive the Mohawks away with their superior numbers. Marian (Alyssa Milano) tantalizes the two about needing help, and then reveals that she was there for the GangNet Linkup that Abobo dropped earlier. Satori informs them that the Mohawks will be back shortly with reinforcements and that they should leave.

Back at Shuko's office, it turns out that Abobo is actually working for him and says that he thought the medallion was "just a piece of cheap jewelry" and that Lash should put out an APB on it since "it's her fault". As punishment for his failure, Shuko decides to subject Abobo to his submolecular steroids, which will give him the "strength of ten men". Abobo says that since he already has that kind of strength, the machine will kill him. Shuko responds by saying the he considers Abobo as a son, "and like any good son, I can always have another. But there is only one Double Dragon". The scene closes with the machine opening up and Abobo screaming in fear of the events to come.

The Lee's car is shown to be parked outside the closed down Seville Theater, which turns out to be home to Satori and the Lees. She explains to them the significance of the dragon medallion she wears. One half of the amulet gives power over the body, making the wearer invincible and super strong. The other half gives power over the soul, allowing the user to enter anyone's body and control them from within. She separated the two halves many years ago, keeping one for herself, and hiding the other in a place no one will ever find it. Later that day, there is a knock at the door and Satori answers it only to be surprised by an old face: Victor Guisman. He says that no one has called him "Guisman" in many years, and that he is now known as Koga Shuko. He demands to know where her half of the Double Dragon is, only to be told that he'll never find the two pieces. Shuko laughs and, to Satori's horror, unzips his coat to reveal his half of the medallion. After spotting the other half around Billy's neck, he attempts to grab it but is stopped by Satori. His henchmen, Huey and Lewis, go after the Lee brothers in an almost cartoon-like chase throughout the theater. After having incapacitating the henchmen, Billy and Jimmy are confronted by a giant, mutated Abobo. They attempt to take him down with some bricks and in the process, accidentally breaks the gas line. Satori appears and knocks Abobo out with a punching bag, and then orders the boys to get out and leave the medallion with her. Billy refuses, asking how it works, but Satori gets impatient and reaches for the medallion as her voice deepens to reveal that she is actually being controlled by Shuko. She is quickly locked behind a fence and Shuko leaves her body, and makes one final offer to the Lees to give up the medallion or else Satori will die. Believing he is bluffing, they turn back to Satori as Shuko sets fire to the theater. They realize that the gas is broken when Lash draws their attention toward her, and rush to get Satori free. They eventually get the gate open and start to leave, but are confronted once again by Shuko, but Satori knocks him away to give Billy and Jimmy the chance to escape. She closes the door behind her, locking the boys out, to keep Shuko distracted. As the Lees run around to the front of the theater, the fire reaches the gasline and the entire theater explodes, with Satori inside. Outside, Lash is wondering where Shuko is, and he appears in his limo behind her. He orders her to set up a meeting with the gangs to employ their assistance in finding the dragon medallion.

Meanwhile, Billy and Jimmy mourn the loss of Satori, the two realize that they must get things together without her, but suddenly, they confront random gang members assembled by Shuko, and they end up fighting, and being chased by them, Billy and Jimmy then hide in a den, where Billy finds a motorcycle to escape, but it breaks down, the two then find a boat and they ensue in a chase with the gang members through the Hollywood River (Hollywood after the big quake of 2007), after a long chase and passing through a tour boat, the boat explodes, leaving Billy and Jimmy in the water, escaping from the gang members, the two then decide to take the fight to Shuko and get the other half of the medallion.

Cast

• Scott Wolf as Billy Lee, the younger Lee brother in blue. He was the protagonist in the original game.
• Mark Dacascos as Jimmy Lee, the elder Lee brother in red. He was the second player's character in the original game.
• Alyssa Milano as Marian Delario, the leader of the Power Corps. She was the damsel-in-distress in the original game and a love interest for both brothers.
• Robert Patrick as Koga Shuko / Guisman, a businessman and a former crime lord seeking to possess both halves of the Double Dragon medallion. Though not in any of the games or other media, he is clearly based on the Shadow Master, the lead villain in the famous television cartoon of "Double Dragon" that aired around the time the movie came out. Other video games and media had similarly-named and skilled villains, such as the Shadow Boss from Battle Toads and Double Dragon.
• Julia Nickson as Satori Imada, the adoptive mother of Billy and Jimmy.
• Kristina Wagner as Linda Lash, Shuko's henchwoman. Linda is one of two enemy characters from the original game featured in the film.
• Nils Allen Stewart as Bo Abobo, the leader of a street gang known as Mohawks. Abobo is the only other enemy character from the game in the film.
• Henry Kingi plays the mutated Bo Abobo during the later part of the film, who reforms and tries to befriend the Lee brothers and Marian at the end.
• George Hamilton appears as himself, working as an anchorman.
• Vanna White appears as herself, working as an anchorwoman.
• Dwid Hellion as Skateboard Hoodlum
• Andy Dick appeared as himself, working as a weatherman who deals with the "fogcast", giving warnings over (implied acidic and radioactive) black rain.

Reception

Reviews by critics, such as the review of the movie by the Washington Post were not favorable. The movie was also shunned by fans and public opinion alike. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes it received a unanimously negative score of 0% from 10 reviews, also making it the lowest rated video game movie adaption of all time..

The Nostalgia Critic also gave a negative review of the film, citing the low quality and cheesy villains. For instance, he named the main villain of the movie the "Vanilla Ice 1000" (since the chartacter is played by Robert Patrick, famous for his role as the T-1000, and because he looks like Vanilla Ice). The Critic also cites the pointlessness of the death of an underdeveloped character.

In 2009, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies.

Box office

According to Box Office Mojo, The film grossed only $1,376,561 in its opening weekend at 1,087 theaters and $2,341,309 in its finished theatrical run.

Home video

Universal released the film on VHS and Laserdisc in 1995 in the United States, while CFP released the film on video in Canada. Goodtimes Home Video released the film on DVD and made another VHS in early 1998 and another DVD on August 31, 2004. Both DVDs are currently out of print.

Related media

Plot and visual elements of the film were reused in the Template:Vgy fighting game version of Double Dragon produced by Technos Japan. This includes the transformation that the Lee brothers go through during the film's climax, which appear in the game as a special move for both characters; and the use of footage of the film in the game's introduction and Marian's stage.

Remake

Face/Off writer Mike Werb is planning to write a new Double Dragon movie saying "It's actually been done once before, but it's such a classic, it deserves to be done better".

External links

• Double Dragon at IMDb
• Double Dragon at AllMovie
• Double Dragon at Rotten Tomatoes