This Chinese-produced epic features Jackie Chan as a warrior named Huo An, John Cusack as a Roman general named Lucius, and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody as the evil warlord Tiberius. So yeah, of course it sounds ludicrous.
But watching the trailer below tells me this could be just the kind of ludicrous, grand-scaled actioner China excels at. The tone is big, but not campy, the action is grand but based on intimate close-quarters combat, and the stars are playing their roles sincerely, without the grim dourness of some contemporary Hollywood blockbuster. I’ll have to check this one for myself.
When asked about DRAGON BLADE, Cusack had this to say:
“You think, ‘OK, that’s a smart business move, you’re going to be in China — China is a big, booming thing.’ Those Chinese companies are probably going to buy Paramount and Warner Brothers one of these days. I love Jackie Chan, I’m a martial artist, and you can’t really do good martial arts unless you’re at the top of the food chain in the studio system. You can’t really do smart action.So I went out to China and did this crazy martial arts thing with him.”
I don’t recall seeing Cusack engage in any serious fisticuffs since GROSSE POINT BLANK 20 years ago, and certainly never alongside anyone on Jackie's level. That alone makes this one worth it, for me.
DRAGON BLADE feeds Adrien Brody scenery to chomp on September 4th.
