Dragon Wars
Release Date:
September 14, 2007
On the Big Board |
Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
31/33 |
John Seal |
Jason Behr: the poor man's Tom Cruise |
214/214 |
Max Braden |
Don't waste your time on this, but if you do, I'll bet you can't not mistake the villain actor as Bill Murray. |
Do you like dragons? Sure, we all do. That's why people keep making movies about the mythological creatures, hoping to capture the fancy of fanboys the world over. In recent years, we've seen Reign of Fire and Eragon disappoint on this front. Dragon Wars, a Korean production from Hyung-rae Shim, a popular South Korean comedian and director of previous dragon-y films like Dragon Tuka and 2001 Yonggary, will hope to lure in the same sort of crowd.
You'd think that with Freestyle Releasing behind the U.S. distribution of Dragon Wars, the film's budget would probably be paltry. In fact, it actually cost in the area of $75 million to make, though it's not the actors that are costing anything. The most famous names in the cast are Jason Behr (best known for starring in the television series Roswell) and character acter Robert Forster. It's been reasonably popular in advance of its North American theatrical release, earning about $54 million and surely hoping to tack on more.
Despite the fact that Dragon Wars is receiving a fairly wide release, there's only a limited audience for this sort of thing. Commercials would indicate that the effects are relatively well done; the only question is whether North American audiences will accept the style of Hyung-rae Shim and topliners who are little known. It's not likely to make a huge splash on the big screen, but should find renewed interest when it hits home video. (Kim Hollis/BOP)
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