Revenge of the Green Dragons

It fits comfortably next to every other gangster movie you've ever seen. Dragons is entirely competent: well-filmed, well-acted, etc. This makes it even more disappointing that the filmmakers didn't reach for more. Frankly, I'm tired of these violent, troubled men movies. There's a million of them, with more being made every day, so settling for the basics isn't going to impress me. But hey, Harry Shum Jr. from Glee does shoot people. Didn't see that coming.

Has a lot of unreached potential. It feels like well trodden territory a good deal of the time but the perspective is different enough to potentially be refreshing. The script is a bit messy with characters lacking enough development and the love story is completely tacked on and unnecessary and unfortunately there's also a wide spread of bad acting

This movie is, in form and function, a damn mess. With tawdry text and subpar performances, it strains for a significance regarding immigrant existence and the pretense of the American Dream. Familiar, yes, but its representation of Chinese-America feels very authentic, and though it seems aesthetically torn between Kar-Wai Wong and Nicolas Winding Refn, it does often reach sublime audiovisual heights to make everything at least partially worth the time.

It's kind of frustrating that it could have been better, as it is a HUGE step forward in Asian-American representation in story and characters.

All style and no substance, and the style isn't that good.

Violent, interesting and sometimes engaging. The plot was inspired by actual events, depicting the history of a bloody Chinese street gang. It has the feel of a Hong Kong crime movie but is set in New York. Some aspects were handled poorly. Performances were a mixed, but some of the characters were good. The charismatic leader often seemed improbable. It effectively depicts violence and gang mentality. Overall I wish the story had been handled better, but it was worth watching.