Disco Dragon

We watch a lot of obscurish movies, in hopes of finding an overlooked treasure. Lately, we've been finding a lot of trash, instead. I was getting tired of this, thinking I should start programming more known good no-brainers. Instead: Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon.

In 1985, Motown mogul Berry Gordy decided to make a kung fu movie/new wave disco music video. He got unknown (?) Tiamak to play "Bruce" Leroy Green, a naive and sincere black kung fu student. He dresses in Chinese clothes and talks in a "But Master, what must I do?" style. He likes to watch Bruce Lee movies and eats popcorn with chopsticks.

At the movies, he meets Sho'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem, a huge snaggle-toothed, bug-eyed ratty haired kung fu villain. He has a gang of new wave Fame rejects and terrorizes the neighborhood. Second villain is a music promoter with a Cindy Lauper wannabe girlfriend. Until they showed up, I wasn't sure this movie was intended to be a comedy.

The promoter wants to get his girlfriend's video played by famous VJ Vanity. Thus enters the love interest. When Vanity is threatened, Leroy gets become her bodyguard. And she might get to teach him the Western custom called "kissing".

Considering this was made by Berry Gordy, the music was terrible. Best song was DeBarge doing "Rhythm of the Night" - not exactly cutting edge. They didn't even do it live, but in a music video within the movie. The Cindy Lauper clone's song, which was supposed to be bad, was one of the best. Vanity was a better actress than singer, and not a very good actress.

But Leroy made a great hero, and a loving tribute to his hero, Bruce Lee. He wears a Game of Death yellow jump suit in one scene, for no special reason. The villains are great, both Sho'Nuff and evil promoter. And everyone takes things seriously - they don't seem to know they are in a comedy. So it is funny and heartfelt, a nice combination.

We continued this disco-sploitation theme with House Party, the 1990 film that made Kid 'n' Play household names. It's about a high-school kid, Kid, who is trying to get to his friend Play's party to dance with some girls and do some rapping. (DJ Dragonbreath is played by Martin Lawrence, almost stealing his scenes.) He has to avoid his dad (Robin Harris, who died shortly after the film was released), school bullies, and crazed dobermanns. But the worst threat are the 2 finest girls at the party - because he can only have one.

This is another movie that is sweetly sincere as well as funny. Maybe a little too sincere, almost toothless. But the music is good: George Clinton has a cameo, DJing a very square black alumni party. Kid 'n' Play are better dancers than rappers, but they aren't so bad. And the movie is full of loving references to black comics - Dick Gregory, Dolomite, Richard Pryor - and break dancing movies like Beat Street and Krush Groove.

It gets a little raunchy for a kid's movie, and it's a little sweet for adults. Give it a try. I did it and now my queue is full of hip-hop classics.