AMERICAN DRAGONS is a heavily stylised but rather unmemorable action thriller of 1998, indebted to John Woo's style but never really coming across as anything other than a cheap imitator. It's a buddy-buddy story in which Michael Biehn's kooky cop is hooked up with a South Korean partner to take down some gangster types. There's a fair bit of action here but it's rather overedited, although there are highs at times; the shoot-out in a bowling alley is handled rather nicely. The rest, I'm afraid, is strictly so-so.

Sometimes these films might be passed by because they're ho-hum or basically been done to death. "American Dragons" offers up nothing new (a mismatch pairing of cops, as East meets West -- one American and other Korean go after a deadly assassin who's setting up a war against the Italian Mafia and the Yakuza),but where it counts this ably slick B-grade action thriller fare is taut, rapid and frenetically violent with a solidly steadfast lead performance by Michael Biehn. I don't really care how unoriginal or familiar these story lines are, as long as it moves along and provides you a good quota of arresting action and plenty of beat-ups. Which this one does. Explosively too. Sometimes the buddy formula can be an irritation, but Michael Biehn and Joong-Hoon Park work off each other nicely --- balancing out the humour, personal depth and vigorous activity accordingly. These characters might not be black and white, but their motivations and believes are clichéd. Sometimes this can be unintentionally humorous. Character actor Don Stark in the villain role is superb as mafia man Rocca and Byron Mann is rather lethal as the shady assassin. Also there's minor support by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagaw. This story of redemption has that posing comic feel, as two sub-plots open up to miraculously tie back together. Competent direction crafts out numerous stylish sequences using some nice shadow and lighting work with moments of flashy slow-motion shots. Cheesy, but enjoyable action hokum.

American Dragons is a hugely underrated film that more people should definitely know about.

Biehn plays Tony Luca, an NYC detective working undercover trying to take down the Fiorino Mafia family. When some unfortunate events cause that investigation to "go sideways", he is transferred to another case, in the Chinatown area where there have been some murders. It seems someone is bumping off Yakuza gangsters and leaving a mysterious Black Lotus emblem. Enter Detective Kim (Park) from the Seoul police department. He comes to America because he has a score to settle with the evil Matsuyama (Tagawa, playing yet another gun-toting bad guy, see Danger Zone ,1996). He teams up with Luca, who also has his own score to settle with amoral gangster Rocco (Stark). So it goes that, despite some initial conflicts due to their different cultures, the two pugilistic cops must take down their respective enemies before a mob war breaks out between the Mafia and the Yakuza.

American Dragons is stylish and artsy, yet dark and brooding. It has an engaging storyline, and despite the fact that it has some brutal, gritty violence, it also has some unexpected humor which leavens everything out.

You really get your money's worth, as there are two personal vendettas that must be settled, and two super-evil bad guys that must get their comeuppance. Luckily, there are two heroes, in the form of Park and Biehn. Biehn gets some great lines and seems as intense as the movie itself. Try to imagine a better, more adult, mature version of Last to Surrender (1999). Also, if you can, try to imagine a MUCH better version of Massacre (1985). While 'Dragons shares some plot elements from those two films, what's really interesting is the similarity it bears to Punisher: War Zone (2008),both in the style in which it is filmed and the plot.

The cinematography truly is a double edged sword here, as it is inventive and stylish, but often the scenes are just too dark to see. It's almost funny how every bar, restaurant, police station or anywhere else in the movie never turns its lights on. A lot of the time it looks like they are talking in the dark. The station house resembles the one from the Law and Order franchises, and that adds to the "police procedural on steroids" feel and even the Captain of the Precinct is reminiscent of that show's Van Buren. But here they're clearly trying to save money on electricity.

The whole movie is a of a much higher caliber than the usual action junk, and you can tell some thought went into everything, from the rockin' soundtrack to the fact that even here there's a training sequence! This, and other clues tell me the filmmakers are action fans themselves and know what they are doing. It's nice to know you're in good hands when you watch a movie.

So remember, "So foul a sky clears not without a storm" and watch American Dragons tonight - it's a cut above the rest.

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