Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Another movie should be made that is based on Fredric Dannen's article which is titled "revenge of the green dragons" (published by The New Yorker, Nov, 16, 1992). The problem with this movie is that it is often too gory (or semi-gory depending on your definition) and violent. Instead of depicting a more realistic story it shows an overly sensationalized image of the gang. Sure, some of these events might have happened, however that doesn't mean that you have to show it in the way that they did. This would have been a decent fictional gory/overly violent gang movie if it was not based on the article that appeared in The New Yorker. Moreover, on numerous occasions i thought that the scenes were totally unrealistic, which prevented me from having that immersed film experience. You know, those moments where one is like "really?!?!". Additionally, there where scenes in which the acting - from certain secondary cast members - was unconvincing. Overall, i give it a 4/10.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning In the early 80s, a swathe of Chinese immigrants arrived on Ellis Island, eager for a new life. Seeing no other way to pursue their slice of 'the American dream', and gain the status and respect they crave, brothers Sonny (Justin Chan) and Steven (Kevin Wu) become part of the titular 'Green Dragons' street gang, who are locked in a turf war with other similarly named Oriental gang members in their area. Detective Michael Bloom (Ray Liotta) follows a lead, tying them to narcotics activities and becomes determined to bring them down. But when one of their members behaviour crosses a line, it plunges the whole group into a deadly spiral of destruction.Adapting a true story, and seeing it's potential for an electrifying action flick, after exhuming some brief history that serves as the backdrop, this biopic of the Green Dragons quickly shifts gear into a high energy, full on action flick, with an Oriental flavour and some brutal, unflinching violence and set pieces. The big draw, though, is Martin Scorsese as executive producer, and after a while it seems he's trying to forge a Goodfellas lite kind of thing, charting how the two central characters became involved in the gang and how their rivalries with each other formed. It's even more down this ark with Ray Liotta as the main star, but even in the lead, this seems like another of his recent 'barely there' parts, with minimal screen time compared to the central protagonists.It's relentlessly flashy, and brutally head on, but it's all completely lacking in coherence, and as a result all seems like a bit of something over nothing, a little too sure of itself without much in the way of genuine substance to keep it going. It makes the mistake of being impetuous when it should have been considered. **

Generic, Cluttered, and Confusing, this Under Developed and Utterly Exploitive Examining tries to be too many things. But it is too Short and Unrealized and it Comes Off as Slick B-Movie Badness so often seen.It's a Mad World, the Setting that the Illegal Immigrants Find Themselves, where Human Trafficking, Torture, Guns, Drugs and Money are all in Plain Sight and Little is Offered to Them that is Not a Daily Drudge of Lost Hope and Dreams.This is a Story of Two Youngsters Flushed down the toilet of Humanity and End Up at the End of the Line that is Presented as a Way Out of Ordinariness. "A fisherman in China will always be a fisherman in China, but in America even a dishwasher has hope.".At the End of this over Indulgent of Everything in the Melting Pot is Familiar Stories since Forever, You will Find Nothing New or Nothing Worth Knowing that isn't already a Common Thread that is on going Weaving Fabric of America's Crazy Quilt to this Day. Not Much has Changed in well over a Hundred Years Except the Countries of Origin.

A collaboration between Wai-Keung Lau (Infernal Affairs trilogy) and Martin Scorsese (The Departed) about Chinese gangs in New York at the end of the 1980s. One would expect fireworks, right? Not so much. This movie is entertaining but misses a bigger impact. It's not surprising the film didn't get a wider release in the US... The rather conventional story is embellished with different kind of colorful gangs from the (Asian) underworld, some pretty gruesome torture scenes and an attempt to make a huge plot twist at the end, but finally fails due to ordinariness. It needed more "cool" and a more interesting angle storywise. Fans of Asian-centered mob movies should give it a try though.