Review of Year of the Dragon (1985) by Kevin G — 31 Dec 2010

A truly amazing movie. It's such an interesting amalgam of elements: film noir, crime-drama, and action. Altogether it's just such an entertaining piece of storytelling. Mickey Rourke owns this movie and is what makes every moment burst with ferocity.

He's a typical tough-as-nails New York cop, but he goes beyond Serpico. The character is so passionate and relentless in his goal to clean Chinatown and uphold the law that he loses sight of anything else in his life.

He's an unstoppable force who will not be intimidated or prevented by fear, if anything just made more unstoppable. It may be true that parts of this do come off a little politically incorrect and outrageous, but it only adds to it's charm and just makes it that much more of a daring film.

Michael Cimino did an incredible job packing this movie with tenacity and scope. It's like a combination of Chinatown, The French Connection, and maybe something along the lines of Die Hard, it's a frantic crime story that is injected with a little more action movie-style adrenaline.

However, what defines it as a great movie over an average one is that in the end it really delivers. Rourke is a growing force of nature who will succeed no matter who gets in his way and no matter what it takes.