Double Dragon Movie

Double Dragon soundtrack from 1994, composed by Various Artists, Jay Ferguson. Released by Milan Records in 1994 (-2) containing music from Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004), Double Dragon (1994).

Billy and Jimmy Lee, as depicted on the packaging artwork of Double Dragon Advance. Their poses in this image were modeled after the fight between and in. For most of the series, players take control of martial artist Billy Lee, who battles against various adversaries such as gang members and rival fighters. He is often assisted by his elder twin brother Jimmy Lee, who usually serves as the second player's character in most of the games. The Lee brothers are characterized as successors of a fictional martial art known as Sōsetsuken ( 双截拳, 'Twin Sever Fist', also known as Sōsaiken), which combines techniques from other styles such as, and.The duo were actually unnamed when the original arcade game was initially released in Japan, although the names Hammer and Spike were given to them in the cabinet and promotional flyer produced by for the overseas version. The names Billy and Jimmy Lee were first established in the Famicom/NES version of the first game and consequently used in other console versions and tie-in products, such as The Original Sound of Double Dragon soundtrack album, but were not actually used in the arcade versions until. Billy Lee's name comes from a combination of 's last name with the first name of his character Billy Lo from the movie, while Jimmy is named after musicianBecause of the differences between the arcade and console versions of the games, the designs of the Lee brothers tend to vary throughout the series.

While the original arcade game has Player 1 controlling a blond-haired Lee brother dressed in a blue outfit and Player 2 as a brown-haired brother in red, the NES version had their hair and outfit colors switched around: Billy was now the brown-haired brother in blue, while Jimmy became the blond-haired brother in red. Was the first game to have the Lee brothers sport different hairstyles during gameplay, with Billy being given a laid down hairstyle and Jimmy a spiky flat top, a design convention adopted by later games such as and the smartphone versions, although some of the promotional art and in-game visuals for the earlier games (such as the ending photograph of and the story sequences/character portraits of ) had already depicted the Lee brothers with differing hairstyles. Other games, such as the and, depict the Lee brothers as identical twins like in the first arcade game.The two brothers are shown to be romantically interested in a young woman named Marian, a student in their dojo. The arcade version of the first game (along with most console versions) can end with both brothers fighting each other over Marian if two players reach the end together, with the survivor ultimately winning Marian's affections. The Famicom/NES version, which establishes Marian to be Billy's long-term girlfriend, changes the story so that Jimmy was actually the leader of the Black Warriors (a change made as a result of the lack of two-player cooperative play in that version) and was the one who orchestrated Marian's kidnapping.Enemy characters The enemy organization in the original Double Dragon are the Black Warriors gang, who are characterized as the dominant criminal organization in after a nuclear war has left the city deprived of any law and order.

Much like the Lee brothers themselves, the names of the gang members were established throughout the console versions of the series. The gang's original leader is the machine gun-toting Willy Mackey (commonly known simply as Willy), who wishes to acquire the knowledge of the Lee brothers' martial arts for himself and orders the kidnapping of Marian as ransom. Recurring members of the gang throughout the various versions of the first game include the thugs Williams and Rowper, Linda, and bald strongman Abobo.

The arcade version also featured two unnamed of other characters (namely of Abobo and the Lee brothers) as end-stage bosses: although these characters were absent in the NES version, which instead introduced a unique enemy, a Chinese martial artist named Chin Taimei. The Lee brother head swap would later appear in the Mark III/Master System version released by Sega, where he was named Jeff.The name of the gang would change in later games. While the arcade version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge had Willy and the Black Warriors retaliating against their earlier defeat by gunning down Marian, the Famicom version replaced Willy with a nameless fighter who led a mysterious armed group following the dissolution of the original Black Warriors. While unnamed in the Japanese version, the English localization of the NES version would refer to this organization as the Shadow Warriors (or the Black Shadow Warriors in the manual), a name later used for an unrelated enemy group in Super Double Dragon, as well as Willy's own gang in Double Dragon Advance. The Shadow Warriors was also the name of the villain group in the Double Dragon animated series and its tie-in game, where they consisted almost entirely of new characters.The names Williams and Rowper were derived from the characters played by and respectively in the movie. Other character seem to follow a similar naming convention such as Linda, who shares her name with Bruce Lee's widow, and the enemy character Bolo from Double Dragon II: The Revenge, who shares his name with actor. Gameplay The gameplay in most of the games takes place in a pseudo 3D perspective like in and later beat-'em-ups, in which the player character can move in four directions but are always facing left or right.

The player can perform a variety of unarmed fighting techniques against their enemies, as well use melee weapons such as baseball bats and throwing knives normally obtained from enemies. In some installments, there are techniques that can be done in combination with another player.References. Retrieved 2014-02-08. Archived from on 2012-06-25. Retrieved 2014-02-08. Retrieved 2014-02-08. Retrieved 2014-02-08.

Retrieved 2014-02-08. ^.

Archived from on 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2015-11-16. The Arcade Flyers Archive. The Arcade Flyers Archive. ^.

The Video Game Music Database. ^. Gorges, Florent (March 2009). Pix'n Love (in French).

Edition Pix'n Love (#07): 34–49. Archived from on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2011-05-08. The Arcade Flyers Archive. Archived from on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2015-11-17.

Nintendo Co., Ltd. Homepage (in Japanese).External links.

Double Dragon series director. at.

Double Dragon is a 1994live-action film based on the video game series of the same name and directed by James Yukich. It stars Mark Dacascos and Scott Wolf as brothers Jimmy and Billy Lee, along with Alyssa Milano as Marian Delario and Robert Patrick as antagonist Koga Shuko. The film takes place in an earthquake-crippled Los Angeles in 2007; the city is styled as a mix between a post-apocalyptic and 80s/90s punk environment.

Plot[edit]

Thousands of years ago in ancient China, an evil army of shadow warriors.. terrorized the great city of Shang-sa. To save his people the good king sacrificed himself to create a mystical medallion. Realizing the ultimate powers of the medallion, the king split it in half. To one son he gave the power over body, to the other, power over the soul. This is the legend of the Double Dragon.

Koga Shuko, a crime lord and businessman, explains to his underlings about a powerful, magic medallion called the Double Dragon, which has been split into two pieces. He obtains one half and orders his henchmen to find the other for him.

Teenage brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, and their guardian/adoptive mother Satori Imada head home after citywide curfew from a martial arts tournament. On their way, they are accosted by gang members, who rule the streets after dark due to an uneasy pact made with the police department to keep them from running amok during the day. They escape with help from the Power Corps, a group of vigilantes headed by their friend Marian Delario, daughter of the police chief. Unfortunately, Bo Abobo, a gang leader, discovers Satori holds the second medallion half and reports this to Shuko. For his failure in securing it, he is mutated into a hulking giant.

At their abandoned theater home, Satori explains to a skeptical Billy and Jimmy about the Double Dragon and how their piece must be protected, and she places it in the care of Billy. Shuko, with his henchmen in tow, pays the Lees a visit, intent on taking the other half. He reveals the ability of his medallion, the power of the soul, which gives the user the power of possession and a shadow form, by temporarily possessing Satori. Billy and Jimmy successfully incapacitate Abobo, but Shuko has the place doused in gasoline and lit on fire. Satori sacrifices herself so the brothers can escape with the Dragon.

Unable to find the brothers on his own, Shuko unites and takes over the gangs by displaying his power and sends them after the Lees. Billy and Jimmy narrowly get away, and seek refuge in the Power Corps hideout. Marian agrees to help them, using this as an opportunity to get rid of the gangs once and for all, and the three of them decide to go to Shuko’s office building to steal his medallion. They ultimately fail and are forced to flee, and Jimmy is captured in the process.

Billy and Marian return to the Power Corps base, and lament about how none of them have been able to figure out how to use their Dragon piece. Marian points out a discovery they made that the wearer of the medallion is immune to the powers of its counterpart, meaning Shuko is not able to possess him as long as he has it. Suddenly, the gangs attack the hideout. In the mélêe, Jimmy reappears. Billy is elated; however, Jimmy is merely being controlled by Shuko as he tries to pummel his brother into submission. Billy then accidentally activates his medallion’s ability, which is the power of the body and effectively makes him invulnerable to harm. Knowing this, Shuko threatens to kill Jimmy instead. This doesn’t succeed either, so he releases Jimmy to distract Billy long enough to get the medallion.

Shuko unites the halves and turns into a pair of shadow warriors with katanas that disintegrate anything they slice through. The Lee brothers fight, but cannot beat him. Abobo, who had previously been taken prisoner and since reformed, reveals to Marian that Shuko’s weakness is light. Marian reactivates the hideout’s generator, and the shadow warriors are rendered powerless. Billy and Jimmy attack, forcefully recombining the shadows into Shuko, and acquire the Double Dragon halves. They combine the two pieces, granting them matching uniforms and the medallion powers, and they briefly see a vision of Satori’s spirit as she gives them encouraging words. The brothers pummel Shuko, and Jimmy possesses him to make him do embarrassing things. During this time, Marian’s father arrives to bring Shuko to justice and to take care of the gangs once and for all. Jimmy has Shuko write a check to the police department for $129 million before encouraging the police chief to arrest him.

Shuko is sent to jail, the police department has renewed strength to fight the gangs instead of compromising with them, and Billy and Jimmy can now keep both halves of the Double Dragon safe.

Cast[edit]

• Scott Wolf as Billy Lee, the younger Lee brother. Wears a blue outfit in the end. Originally the Player 1 character in the video games.
• Mark Dacascos as Jimmy Lee, the elder Lee brother. Wears a red outfit in the end. Originally the Player 2 character in the video games.
• Alyssa Milano as Marian Delario, the leader of the Power Corps. Originally the kidnapped woman in the arcade game, the film version of Marian is a more active heroine compared to her video game counterpart.
• Robert Patrick as Koga Shuko/Victor Guisman, a businessman and former crime lord seeking to possess both halves of the Double Dragon medallion. Shuko was a new villain created for the movie, although his character was later adapted as the final boss in the 1995 Double Dragon fighting game based on the film.
• Julia Nickson as Satori Imada, the adoptive mother/guardian of Billy and Jimmy.
• Leon Russom as Chief Delario, Chief of the New Angeles Police corps and the father of Marian and Marc Delario.
• Kristina Wagner as Linda Lash, Shuko's henchwoman. Linda was originally an enemy character from the video game.
• Nils Allen Stewart as Bo Abobo, the leader of a street gang known as Mohawks. Abobo was another enemy character from the video game.
• Henry Kingi plays the mutated Bo Abobo during the later part of the film, who reforms and tries to befriend the Lee brothers and Marian at the end.
• George Hamilton appears as an anchorman.
• Vanna White appears as an anchorwoman.
• Andy Dick appeared as a weatherman who deals with the 'fogcast', giving warnings over (implied acidic and radioactive) black rain.
• Cory Milano as Marc Delario, Marian's younger brother.

Production[edit]

First-time director Jim Yukich summarized his approach to the film: 'Our characters are like normal kids - three kids on an adventure, so we didn't want to make something that kids would almost be too afraid to see. Shadow warrior 2 gameplay 2018. .. I'd like to make it in a funnier, light-hearted vein.'^[2]

Actor Robert Patrick said: 'That was a movie I did that, on paper, I thought could really work. It, uh, didn’t really work that well. .. There’s some funny aspects to that character, and it was a fairly liberating experience to be funny and try to be menacing at the same time. I am proud of my performance. It’s a pretty extreme performance. Yeah, and I got to work with Scott Wolf, Mark Dacascos, and Alyssa Milano.'^[3]

The boat chase sequence was filmed on the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio, and climaxes with an explosion which used 700 gallons of gasoline combined with 200 gallons of alcohol.^[2] Though warnings were broadcast on several news channels the previous night, the explosion caused residents of the nearby city to panic, leading to 210 phone calls to emergency services over ten minutes.^[2]

Reception[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

Reviews by critics were unfavorable. The Washington Post called it 'clumsily paced' and 'amateurishly acted' by kids 'so upbeat they might have escaped from a road tour of Annie'; although the amalgamated metropolitan backdrop of New Angeles is called 'imaginative'.^[4] Writing for The New York Times, Stephen Holden called it 'a movie of frantic action and clever special effects' with 'jumpy nonstop energy that overrides the script's incongruities and the amateurish performances.'^[5] Reviewbiquity gave the film one out of five stars, stating the movie 'won’t satisfy even the most fervent of fans.'^[6] On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it received a negative score of 13% from 15 reviews, with the consensus 'Double Dragon's clever use of special effects cannot mask the film's overly simplistic storyline and cheesy dialogue', making it one of the lowest-rated video game movie adaptions of all time.^[7][8][9]

In 2009, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video game movies.^[10]

Sales[edit]

According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed $1,376,561 in its opening weekend at 1,087 theaters and $2,341,309 in its finished theatrical run.

Legacy[edit]

Plot and visual elements of the film were reused in the 1995fighting game version of Double Dragon produced by Technos Japan. This includes the transformation that the Lee brothers go through during the film's climax, which appear in the game as a special move for both characters; and the use of footage of the film in the game's introduction and Marian's stage.

Home video[edit]

Universal released the film on VHS and Laserdisc in April 1995 in the United States, while CFP released the film on video in Canada. GoodTimes Entertainment made another VHS in late 1997, released it on DVD in 2001, and another DVD on August 31, 2004. In 2014, DigiDreams released the film on Blu-ray in Germany. MVD Entertainment Group (under license from rights holder Imperial Entertainment Group) released the film on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack in 2019.

References[edit]

1. ^Kirsten Acuna (March 13, 2014). 'Video Game Movies That Bombed At The Box Office - Business Insider'. Business Insider.
2. ^ ^abc'Double Dragon Will Roar in '94'. Electronic Gaming Monthly (54). EGM Media, LLC. January 1994. p. 296.
3. ^Patrick, Robert (October 4, 2012). 'Robert Patrick on Last Resort and playing the T-1000'. AV Film (Interview). Interviewed by Will Harris. The Onion. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
4. ^Kempley, Rita (November 7, 1994). 'Double Dragon: The Movie'. Washington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
5. ^Holden, Stephen (November 4, 1994). 'Live Action Inspired By Video'. The New York Times. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
6. ^'Double Dragon'. Reviewbiquity. June 2, 2014. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
7. ^'Double Dragon (1994)'. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
8. ^http://beta.rottentomatoes.com/guides/best_video_game_adaptations/1/^{[permanent dead link]}
9. ^'Newest Double Dragon Again A `Love It` Or `hate It` Deal'. Chicago Tribune. April 26, 1991. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
10. ^'Top 10 Worst Video Game Movies'. Time Magazine. October 20, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2013.

External links[edit]

• Double Dragon on IMDb
• Double Dragon at AllMovie
• Double Dragon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Double Dragon at Box Office Mojo