By Geno McGahee
In 1993 SUPER MARIO BROS was released. Based on the super popular Nintendo video game, the film did not do the source material correctly. The fans were not happy with it and it was a box office bomb, made on 48 million and only recouping about 20 million of it. Probably believing that SUPER MARIO BROS would be a huge hit and to immediately follow up with another video game-based movie, 8 million was invested in another box office bomb, DOUBLE DRAGON.
Much like SUPER MARIO BROS, we begin with some narration and storytelling about the ancient medallion that was split in two to make the Double Dragon. One side controls the power of the soul and the other, the power of the body. Kogu (Robert Patrick) sends his goons to Asia to retrieve it from some monks that cut out their tongues so they wouldn’t have to speak. I wonder if any of them missed oral sex or licking lollipops. Losing your tongue is a big price to pay.
This film takes place in “New Angeles”, in an alternate future, I guess, and I began seeing the influence of many other films. This is TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES having a threesome with ROBOCOP and SUPER MARIO BROS. It’s got nothing on the turtles or Robocop, but it’s better than SUPER MARIO BROS.
You know this film is in trouble when they have Andy Dick and Vanna White in acting roles. They are small roles where they are both part of a news team. Vanna is so uncomfortable in front of the camera and it’s on display here. This is definitely ROBOCOP-inspired stuff here.
Jimmy Lee (Mark Dacascos) and his brother, Billy (Scott Wolf), are martial arts experts, but they are young and immature, especially Billy. They compete in competitions and tend to lose for breaking the rules. As I watch this film, I keep thinking about how much Dacascos probably got fucked by it. Losing the studio several million dollars doesn’t make them eager to put more into you and this was it for him. This film followed up the fantastic ONLY THE STRONG and it could have been the launching pad to super stardom, but it crashed and burned. I also heard that he’s difficult to work with…so there’s that too.
I should probably mention the film THE WARRIORS while I’m at it. There are gangs in this like “The Mohawks” and “The Clowns” and they make up most of the city after hours. At least they’re using some good films to take from. Kogu takes control of all the gangs and sends them after the Lee brothers because they have the other half of the medallion.
One of the first gang members we have is Bo Abobo (Nils Allen Stewart), a Mohawk member with a bad attitude. He is teamed up with “Smart Ass Mohawk” played by John Asher. Asher was in the 1993 film “SHOWDOWN” with Billy Blanks and maybe this ruined his career too. Asher did a good job in this though. The acting is so over the top and cheesy in this and Asher had a lot of fun with it. You can see it.
The only gang that is in the corner of the Lee brothers is led by Marian, played by Alyssa Milano. Milano is wearing very short shorts and a tight top. I can see why the producer put down 8 million dollars. If they came to me and said “I got the ONLY THE STRONG guy, the TERMINATOR 2 guy and Alyssa Milano in tight stuff,” I’d break out the checkbook.
The Lee brothers fight off the gangs and we see explosion after explosion. A lot of their budget went to blowing shit up. They team up with Marian to get the half of the medallion from Kogu, but it’s not easy. Kogu knows how to use his medallion and he turns into a CGI shadow, which is really bad. They obviously didn’t hire the same guy that did TERMINATOR 2 for the special effects here.
Kogu can take over bodies and takes over the body of Jimmy to kick Billy’s ass and get the medallion. Billy finally unlocks the powers of the medallion and cannot be hurt, but Kogu gets full control and turns into a double demonic samurai…and that was pretty cool.
DOUBLE DRAGON is not terrible. It’s not good either, but it is mindless entertainment with a few laughs here and there. The acting is so over the top and the story is so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but to enjoy it. Remarkably, I’m going to recommend it.
