20
The local angle offers a degree of flavor, but this is a dull tale, reminiscent of a hundred others. The dialogue is ludicrous, the video stock looks cheap.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
38
Like Better Luck Tomorrow, it tries to cut cool-movie poses under the pretense of providing an alternative racial viewpoint to typical genre tropes.
40
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
In the end the taste of H.K. filmmaking dominates in the film's deliberately chaotic visual style, a circular narrative that heads nowhere, and lyrical song interludes that abruptly interrupt the non-stop action and camera movement.
30
This crudely made thriller plays like a stilted Cantonese riff on organized-crime cliches, substituting blood and brutality for novelty or insight.
50
Los Angeles Times by Martin Tsai
Fredric Dannen's reportage, which appeared in a 1992 issue of the New Yorker and serves as the film's basis, contains lurid details that leap off the page in a cinematic way. The "Dragons" script by Michael Di Jiacomo and co-director Andrew Loo preserves many, but few register on-screen.
40
Village Voice by Michael Nordine
Green Dragons wants to be spaghetti with marinara, but it's closer to egg noodles and ketchup.
58
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Most of the pleasure in Green Dragons comes simply from the opportunity to watch some underused actors dig into meatier parts than they’re usually offered.
50
The New York Times by Nicolas Rapold
What initially feels like brash energy peters out until what’s left mainly evokes pretty ordinary gangster movies.
16
The Playlist by Nikola Grozdanovic
Loo and Lau’s Dragons is too busy reveling in tilted angles, music video editing, mind-numbingly clichéd dialogue, wooden acting and a one-dimensional story about brotherhood.
40
In Lau and Loo’s telling, the off-the-boat indoctrination of young, undocumented Chinese families into vicious gangsterism is overstated and cartoonish, like The Warriors trying to pass itself off as a docudrama.