ThiefHott
Too much of everything
Doomtomylo
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
blackmamba99971
As mystical stories go this one was right on the money. A tale about kings, wars, and dragons. Josh (Louis Corbett) comes to china to be with his father who is an archaeologist of old Chinese artifacts. With him is a woman assistant Dr. Li (Wang Ji) who's daughter Jin (Lin Lin Jin) is part of a family that dates back six thousand years into the past.Jin realizes that she can hear a flute, which cannot play by ordinary means. Rather a monk Wu Dong (Jordan Chan) uses it to call the chosen one (Jin) to go, and find what is known as the Dragon Pearl. Which in turn belongs to an actual dragon that has been buried underground for nearly six millenniums. Now both Josh, and Jin embark on an incredible adventure to retrieve the lost pearl, and give it back to the dragon so he can go back to the celestial plane.Yet in the foreground is josh's father's second assistant Philip (Robert Mammone) who wants the pearl for himself, and its power. After convincing Josh to steal a book key Josh opens a tomb for which the pearl itself is hidden from curious eyes. Now with the pearl he is betrayed by Philip, and is on the run with Jin to get the pearl back to its rightful owner.All in all, this was a great family film. It had good action, not over the top. The music was pleasing to the ear with the mystical sounds of old songs. Seeing the dragon itself was done really well with its grandiose slithering movements. Tales of old spoke of the dragons as good luck icons where the common folk look to them for guidance, and well being.A mystical aspect if there ever was one in this film. It had sadness, happiness, humour, and adventure. Highly recommended to all ages.
MUDHONEY 04
Not in a good way, either. I expected a family fun adventure to take up my Friday night but instead it made me feel like it was Monday morning I was in that much pain. The bad acting and bad special effects really added to the torture and I admit that I cried a bit during the special effects. The dragon looked like a flying dog with badly synced audio that sounded like it had been recorded with a phone. I'm not saying this is the worst movie I have seen, it's just number 1 on my top worst movies I've seen. My friend came over halfway during the movie and I had to turn off the TV so he wouldn't see the "movie" I was watching. All in all, I loved it.
kingdom-krud
I rated the Dragon Pearl a 6. For me, liking is >7, and disliking is <5, so this one fell into the Almost Good or Kinda Liked region. It's a movie to take your preteen kids to and feel good about (if they aren't movie buffs). The positives are: - the movie speeds along quickly to use up it's 95 minutes - has a reasonable script - nice mix of Aussie and Chinese actors, with the kids being best - dragon FX are good/minimal/oriental lookingThe bads are: - Sam Neil was in it and didn't want to be - story line is way too predictable with typical parent/kid relationships - action sequences really should be left out, they are awfulMy rating is 6 out of 10: I kinda liked this almost good movie
blanknamedstuff
I had the opportunity to catch this film as a prerelease promo. Knowing nothing about it except that the story took place in China I thought it would be a good waste of an evening. It was. A waste, that is.There is a long standing tradition among American film viewers that, with rare exception, any movie with the word "dragon" in its title is going to be disappointing. The Dragon Pearl is not one of those exceptions.The entire thing feels like it was written, cast, and directed by a high school drama team. The story is bland and predictable, following the typical adventure theme. The characters were cookie cutter clones of every adventure movie character we've seen. The actors might as well be made of cardboard for all the emotion they showed. The poorly choreographed fight scenes rely on bad camera angles and 1 second shots to drive them along. And the film itself... maybe it was just the version I watched, but it had a grainy late-80's style to it. (Think: The Goonies.) I missed about 1/4 of the dialogue due to lack of subtitles (Chinese and English are both spoken throughout the movie) but that should be fixed in the actual release.The dragon itself amazed me. It wasn't very good (it looked like a plastic toy) but the amount of fluidity to its movement was excellent. It swam through the air, curling around itself, almost like a slow moving eel. They really should have textured it better.All in all it's one of those budget flicks you won't mind watching on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Assuming there's nothing else to do.
