Max Havoc (Mickey Hardt) is an ex-kickboxer turned photographer who protects two attractive sisters from the Yakuza led by David Carradine. Seems that one of the sisters bought a jade dragon from dealer Richard Roundtree and after numerous awkward moments, Max Havoc saves the day but doesn't save the film. As far as narrative flow goes, Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is possibly Pyun's most chaotic movie ever made. (And I saw Nemesis 1-3, Bloodmatch and Deceit) The problem with Max Havoc is that it only provides occasional laughter. From laughably overblown suspense sequences that involve hostage taking, getting run over by a row-boat, getting cut up in a limo and much much more. However Pyun actually makes the biggest mistake by hardly giving us any dumb moments and basically the movie is mostly dulls-ville. There is some controversy over how this movie was made, but I for one am indifferent to such matters. Sure it's not right but i'm not here to discuss politics and my neutral observations are simple; Max Havoc is a terrible movie with only a few (unintentionally) hilarious moments to keep you from shutting it off. Among the unintentionally hilarious moments is how Pyun pays direct "homage" to Cyborg (itself a masterpiece compared to this) in that Pyun shows pointless flashbacks for no other reason but to stretch out the running time. In this case we watch Max Havoc deliver a jumping punch which is then followed by David Carradine looking mean into the camera and smoking his cigarette and showing his rings. Also the ending makes no sense and the impression here is given that the movie wasn't even indeed finished. Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is so incompetently edited that fight sequences are literally scrapped before the confrontation ends! Also the story is so over the map it's impossible to follow it coherently and finally the movie features acting so terrible that it sometimes borders on surreality. David Carradine and Richard Roundtree look (rightfully) embarrassed, Carmen Electra is not in it much and newcomer Mickey Hardt is so bad that he makes other Pyun leads (a list that includes Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sasha Mitchell, Michael Dudikoff,Gary Daniels, Steven Seagal and (shudder) Olivier Gruner) seem like master thespians. Seriously where did they find this guy? Still the main question is whether Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon works as a guilty pleasure style movie, and sadly the answer is no. There are a few laughs to be had but mainly we watch Mickey Hardt snap photos for like forty minutes before anything happens and this in itself is a tragedy because without dumb action, Max Havoc:Curse Of The Dragon is just painful to watch.

Note:On the DVD there is a biography of David Carradine and Richard Roundtree however both sections neglect to mention Bound For Glory,Kill Bill Vol.1 and Shaft on the filmography for the two distinguished actors. Which only shows the ineptitude of all involved.

* out of 4-(Bad)

For a film called, Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon, it was pretty chill spending more time lounging on the beach and spending time in hotels rather than having car chases, explosions and helicopters! I do not know why, but that is what the name Max Havoc conjures up. Not hearing wondrous quotes from characters we do not know, sipping club sodas and enjoying a lame karaoke ending.

The story, Max is a former kick boxer turned photographer, because why the heck not? He goes to Guam where he has a 10 second reunion with his former trainer, a man he has not seen in years, since his reason for becoming a former kick boxer because he has to hop on a jet ski and literally buzz and splash dudes rowing and then someone they are the jerks. Well two sisters who can afford a top notch room vacationing in Guam are having money troubles and there is this jade dragon and it has ashes and one of the sisters gets it and we have people chasing her. It is up to Max Havoc to stop them! Though they are quite reasonable...

The lead guy is kind of bland, David Carradine is a last minute add on whose relationship with the hero is hinted at, but never really explained and the girls are pretty I guess. Then you have the henchmen where one dude always has his mouth open and I thought he would be the end fight, but it turned out to be a bald guy. The film is just a bit all over the place in trying to establish a new character.

So, this film was not too good. I see they did a sequel and maybe it had the mayhem one tends to associate with Havoc, but probably not. The way this movie ran, his name should have been Max Linger instead as that is what he did.

This thing was some sort of a tax write off, right? And the filmmakers all ran afoul of the authorities in Guam and were dragooned into the production as part of some state-sanctioned community service? I can't think of another explanation for the lackluster, don't-give-a-crap quality of this inaction flick. I mean, the genre of taking a martial artist, sticking him in front of a camera and having him fake fight guys until you've got enough footage for a feature film is notoriously terrible. Maybe not quite a bad as the zombie genre, but within spitting distance. But most genre trash like this is either made by people who don't know it's trash or for people who don't know it's trash, resulting in movies that at least have a sort of adolescent striving for coolness and badassery. Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon has its star spend most of the flick in a floral shirt, shorts and a pair of "mandels". An action hero in "mandels"? Yeah, they really weren't even trying with this thing.

Max Havoc (Mickey Hardt) is a former kickboxer-turned sports photographer who gets sent to Guam for a cushy assignment snapping pics for a hotel ad campaign. While there, he gets caught between deadly assassins seeking an ancient jade sculpture and the beautiful woman (Joanna Krupa) who doesn't want to give it back. Richard Roundtree and David Carradine also show up in small roles and do nothing but make you wish somebody had done a Shaft/Kung Fu mash-up back in the day.

Now, there are so many negative comments to make about this plot, this dialog, the somnambulant direction of Albert Pyun, the half-a-note acting of Mickey Hardt and the fact that this thing looks more like a video from the Guam Tourism Bureau than it does an action movie. I would imagine that most anybody who'll ever be interested in watching Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon won't care about that stuff, so why bother. Instead, let me focus on what the likely viewer of this joke will care about and tell you how much that stuff sucks.

First, none of the women in the cast get naked. Not Joanna Krupa. Not Carmen Electra. Not Tawney Sablan. None of them. There are no sex scenes at all. Scenes with them in bikinis is as racy as it gets.

Second, the fight scenes here are both rather short and fairly lame. A lot of it looks like bad pro wrestling, the kind where guys get "hit" and then they jump in the air and flip around. Hardt may be a legitimate ass-kicker in real life. In this film, it barely looks like he can break an egg. I've seen better fight scenes on Walker: Texas Ranger. Heck, I've seen better fight scenes on Fraiser and How I Met Your Mother.

Third, there's a lot of talking in this movie. A lot. Hardt and his too pink, too-big-for-his-face lips talk a lot. Krupa talks a lot while remaining frustratingly clothed. Tawney Sablan talks a lot. Even Carmen Electra in a cameo talks a lot. I won't say there's as much yakking here as your average Woody Allen movie or an old episode of thirtysomething, but there's an enormous mass of conversatin' going of for a low-budget action flick. I guess all that dialog does give Krupa and Sablan a chance to show they're adequate actresses, but that's balanced out by exposing Hardt as having all the acting talent of a roast beef sandwich.

If you're going to make something like Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon and you can't be bothered to proved naked chicks to leer at or people getting the snot beat out of them in entertaining ways, why are you bothering?

And you know what the worst part is? There's a sequel to this thing. A sequel! Gah. I strongly recommend you avoid this movie and think the people who thought there should be another should be shot out of a cannon.