The hilariously redundant D-WAR: DRAGON WARS (as it appears onscreen) is reportedly the most expensive South Korean film ever made, something like $70 million. And it's all up on the screen, particularly a mid-section setpiece in which a mean giant snake blasts its way through downtown Los Angeles, upending cars and smashing buildings and knocking Apache helicopters out of the sky. The CGI effects, created by the writer/director Hyung-rae Shim in his own special effects studio, are mostly impressive, and the ambitious storyline reaches out to 16th-century Asia for a romantically rendered flashback inspired by popular wuxia like CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

I say the budget is all up on the screen, because little of it appears to have been used to buy charismatic young stars or an intelligent screenplay. D-WAR is a deliriously silly movie with little regard for its plot. Coincidences, such as the one that brings its hero, a cable news reporter named Ethan (Jason Behr, who has unusual tastes in hair and wardrobe for a major news star), and its heroine, empty-eyed 20-year-old Sarah (Amanda Brooks), together to jump-start the plot, abound. I don't know how fluent Shim is in English, but an unfamiliarity with the language might explain Ethan's database search for women of a certain age named "Sarah" without taking into consideration the thousands of "Saras" roaming around L.A. Though I don't know how to explain Ethan taking a bullet in the shoulder, and then getting off the ground without even a grimace or a hole in his shirt with an injury that is never acknowledged for the rest of the running time.

For a movie that ultimately boils down to two giant serpents wrestling each other, the backstory is needlessly complicated. Luckily, Shim hired the fine actor Robert Forster to explain it to a young Ethan in a flashback that leads to a flashback-inside-a-flashback. Basically, 500 years ago, a young Korean girl was born with the Yuh Yi Joo inside of her--an energy to be transferred from her on her 20th birthday to a "good" serpent--the Imoogi--and transform it into a dragon. However, an evil serpent--Baraki--wants the Yuh Yi Joo, so he can turn into an evil dragon. He can also turn himself to a Korean-speaking man who resembles a white-haired Richard Moll, and has an army of Lucasian warriors and creatures to assist his quest for the Yuh Yi Joo.

He fails to get it 500 years ago, and is now back to get it in Los Angeles, where Ethan, the reincarnation of the young warrior pressed into service protecting the girl five centuries ago, discovers the Yuh Yi Joo is inside Sarah, who has no family and apparently no job or schooling, but lives with a roommate in a comfortable house in the suburbs. Forster, as Jack, the antique-store owner who knows everything about the Imoogi legend, dies--maybe, I think, it's hard to say for sure--but pops up often in ghost form, either to provide Ethan with a periodic pep talk or just to kick the asses of some muggers giving Sarah a hard time outside a bar.

D-WAR was reportedly shorn of at least 17 minutes before its U.S. theatrical run this summer, which may explain some of the plot holes, like why the FBI knows more about an obscure Korean legend than the leads do or what scientist Elizabeth Pena's question about diamonds being the Earth's hardest substance has to do with anything. Some of D-WAR's dialogue comes across like NON SEQUITUR THEATER. It's hard to hate any movie, though, that unironically features that time-tested tradition of giant-monster movies--the scene in which a bunch of cops fire their pistols in vain at a huge snake that has already knocked down a few dozen buildings. Plus, in another (unintentional?) nod to monster movies of the past, the Baraki's evil lair is none other than camera-friendly Bronson Canyon. Throw in not one but two Wilhelm Screams, and D-WAR comes across as such stupid fun that only a cur would point out that there's only one dragon in the movie, so there could hardly be any dragon wars.

Is this out on DVD now? I can't wait to check it out.

If you liked the unintentional laughs you got with this one, definitely check out Shim's YONGGARY remake from a few years ago. It was released here as REPTILIAN and was so damn funny.

No such luck. I saw the longer cut at last year's American Film Market and the extra footage did nothing to explain the story. Two big scenes were cut; in the first Robert Forster flies and shoots energy beams at Buraki so Ethan and Sarah can escape in a stolen pizza delivery car, and in the second a group of bounty hunters (including Matthias Hues) are recruited by the FBI to capture Buraki but run away when the monster is described to them.

January 8. I just posted cover art and specs for Sony's DVD, Blu-ray and UMD versions on SciFi Japan:

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2007/12...-dvd-from-sony/

Tarnation, when I saw those bus stop ads, I promised myself not to miss D-WARS at any cost. In the meantime, REPTILIAN has been added to your Queue.

You stay away from my queue, Stangl!

Holy crap, what fool would cut something so awesome?

Beats me! Where else are you going to see Robert Forster flying and battling a big snake?

REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE - but it's all in the subtext, ya see... :ph43r:

"I'm sure Bruce is fine"

Yes, that line (said after the hero sees his sidekick zapped by the villain) solidified that D-WAR: DRAGON WARS is a fine, fine film. Not since Shim's YONGGARY redux have I been so thrilled to see CGI lizard ripping through downtown. Marty pretty much covered everything from the needlessly convoluted storyline to the wacky bits where cops save the day. I love it! It is truly a testament to Forester's acting that he is able to get that entire story across and make it seem credible.

I am sad to see that it was cut down for the US as Matthias Hues (as Bounty Hunter #1) seems to have been lost in that trimming. Now, can anyone tell me where the hell the end of the movie took place?

I'm more curious about how the hero got home.

William - Middle Earth is just off the U.S./Mexico border.

Really, from Mighty Morphin Robert Forster to your octave-pedal-moaning bad guy with metal stuff on his fingers getting plowed into by two cars in the space of, like, a minute and a half, this is one of the most deliriously batshit crazy movies I saw in 2007.

Rydell, you sly puss!

No, that's Liz.

That's right - PUSS ON A HOT TIN ROOF! What a movie! What a wardrobe! Later a great musical with Zero Mostel (and, in the film, Topol Gigio)!

With Zero, you always get more!

Got this off Netflix, and thoroughly enjoyed every crazy minute. An easier sit than TRANSFORMERS, which spent kajillions more to unleash pretty much the same level of destruction on downtown LA. I liked it when the reporter (that shirt!) is welcomed into the hospital with open arms by the doctor, a that'll-be-the-day moment...and liked it even more when there turned out to be a reason for him to do so, checkmating my guffaw. Good effects and bad acting, but sincere in its overambitious desire to entertain a cross-cultural audience despite various liabilities. Bring on the sequel, or better yet GODZILLA VS. DRAGONS, or DRAGONS VS. HOST, or DRAGONS AND HOST VS. BOA AND PYTHON. :)

Oh man, in the first 20 minutes, after hearing convoluted Imoogi legends, at least two characters give blank stares and demand to know "What are you talking about?"

What they're talking about is a movie where LA's Library Tower is referred to as the "Liberty Building".

Where Robert Forster apparently has the ability to make bowls of hot soup materialize in his hands between cutaways.

Where a villain whose first established superpower is the ability to walk through metal, and is later nailed by two cars in the space of three minutes.

Where a reporter seems to believe that the TV news station keeps a database of teenagers' tattoos (turns out they don't, but his camera op has to check to confirm this?).

Any discussion of D-WAR immediately becomes a list of Things That Are Awesome About D-WAR.

Bonus: Chris Mulkey failed to save LA from rampaging monsters last year, and this year failed New York City in CLOVERFIELD. Keep that guy out of Chicago.

I at first wondered whether the film was making some sort of political message against George Bush, who also believes L.A. has a "Liberty Tower." But I then realized that D-WAR: DRAGON WARS (awesome title) isn't that smart.

No kidding. In a film filled with weak plotting, that was the moment that made me heft my TV brick and prepare to toss it. As you say, the button lets the scene off the hook, so I put my TV brick away, but considering how dumb the rest of the movie is, the scene doesn't initially seem out of the ordinary by D-WAR standards.

I still love Elizabeth Pena's "So, do you guys know what the hardest substance on Earth is?" It's like those lab scenes in POLICE SQUAD.

I'm hoping for D-WORLD WAR!

D-WAR is awesome. Why?

"Because it's my birthday."

Oh, it's your birthday? Well, congratulations. After all, according to Sarah in D-WAR, you are expected to CONGRATULATE people when it's their birthday. What? Sarah, when I saw that you keep a book of ancient Korean... something in a drawer in your kitchen I assumed you knew something about your own reincarnation backstory. But apparently not. Apparently you just... happen to have some ancient scroll-thingies and are really into Korean antiques.

I'm friendly with Craig Anton, who played the doctor-who-is-Jack-who-is-a-reincarnated-warrior, and tried to ask him if getting to morph into Robert Forster was a career highlight, but he didn't want to talk about it.