Year of the Dragon

Mickey Rourke looks absurd with his hair dyed silver or white (or is it blond?--it seems to change from scene to scene) and this picture is just about as silly, What does it all mean? Who the hell knows. Something about a tough ex-Marine police captain coming in to clean up Chinatown and having to battle "thousands of years of tradition" (as it is phrased over and over and over and over again) to prevail. Mix in a little domestic drama between Rourke and his wife (she is mad because he won't have kids—and she gets killed for her insensitivity), a completely implausible romance between Rourke and an attractive Chinese newscaster (who, by the way, is presented in a completely unconvincing performance by an attractive Chinese actress), a lot of ranting and raving and thrashing about, the sacrifice of an earnest young cop to Rourke's cause, some brutal violence, and a stupidly happy ending, and this is what you get, Want to know who directed this? Michael Cimino (late of “Heaven’s Gate” fame--or infamy) and you gotta wonder if there’s a pattern developing, Oliver Stone (a personal favorite) co-wrote the script, but that didn't seem to help. Hard to say who trashes this picture more, The one performance I liked was that of the fellow who plays the Micheal Corleone role of the young man who takes over the family. But otherwise, the picture is long, loud, and full of a lot of activity. (Not action, activity,) It is not boring, and there are some striking scenes, and it looks real good, but as complete entity it kind of falls apart, Call it a bad movie that I kind of enjoyed,