Twin Dragon Encounter (1986)

The Age of Commercialism

How sad is this?

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A couple of dudes that look like Oates from Hall and Oates are apparently the toughest men alive and love to kick people in the head when they're not looking. They face a militia in between the long stretches of chilling at the cottage. Terrible acting, slow mo fighting, and some far too many shots of nothing important slow this down, but it's frequently hilarious and worth watching.

Now here's a gem! Michael and Martin McNamara here play...Michael and Martin McNamara, two martial arts instructors on the mean streets of Canada. Tired of having to break up brawls in the park where middle-aged white men threaten to harm dogs if they're not left alone, the two identical twins leave the big city for a week's vacation on Twin Island, their own property in rural Pointe Au Baril, Canada. Once there, the men and their girlfriends have a grand old time swimming, boating, and avoiding bears by sleeping in a treehouse. We even get to see the twins' prankster side. But there is a gang of "weekend warriors" trying to spoil their fun. A group called "The People's Private Army", led by the evil Jake (B.Bob, who else) is constantly terrorizing the couples. Eventually, the baddies kidnap the girls and the Twin Dragons must use every tool at their disposal and a fleet of vehicles hidden under leaves and twigs to rescue them. Will they be successful? Yes, this is one of THOSE movies. You've heard of non-acting, now get prepared for non-directing as well. Sure, this is one notch above a home movie, but they got it released on Vidmark, and it presumably got distributed all over the world. You see, it's not about budget or experienced actors and technicians, it's about heart and soul. The McNamaras, and the project they built for themselves here, has that DIY spirit and they really achieved something here.It should be noted that there is an on-screen crawl a la Star Wars to let us know we're in for an epic experience (there's also a brief post-movie crawl as well), and in it, among other claims, it is said that the McNamaras, and I quote, "know the meaning of life". Far from being an exaggeration, and a weird one at that, the answer is clearly Billy Butt, the musician behind the oft-repeated tunes in this movie, "The Right to Fight" and "Faces". These rockin' and catchy songs, not to mention the artist's name, must have some connection to the meaning of life.The twins resemble Frank Zappa and have thick Canadian accents. They wear Karate outfits as daily wear, and there are many shots of their martial arts studio in Ontario, as well as their vans, emblazoned with the name, address and phone number of said studio. Their fighting style is not bad at all, but most of the fight scenes have bizarre slow motion and wacky sound effects. Just check out the roadside diner fight, it's really...one of a kind.The movie is 79 minutes long, and that includes 9 minutes of recap of what they felt were the best scenes, as well as some additional credits. That includes a credit letting us know the true independence of this movie. Kids could look up to the McNamaras, and surely in Canada, they do. The Vidmark box makes all kinds of hyperbolic claims about the classic status of this movie, and they seem to have pasted the heads of the two brothers on other people's bodies. But will this movie ever make it to DVD? For a hilarious great time, check out martial arts Canada-style and Encounter this winner tonight! For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

What fun. My Bad Movie group is constantly amazed when we can uncover a whole nother genre and/or filmmakers and the McNamara Twins are da bomb! Obviously very accomplished martial artists - they decided why not try and be action film stars as well - the heck with Van Damme or Chuck Norris. We're REAL identical twins! That's our gimmick, but sadly neither one of the twins can act. At ALL! One is dull and the other one is duller. Their mustaches give better performances than they do. We were howling at the horrible editing, terrible acting and cheesy dialogue. There'a great scene where one of the bad guys has once again snatched one of their girlfriends and is holding her around the neck. One of the twins has a crossbow and obviously if they really had a stunt coordinator, they could stage a scene where the arrow would take out the guy - just missing the girl by inches, but nope we cant possibly pull that off - so suddenly the bad guy lets go of the girls' neck with one hand and places it against a tree. Like - here - try and hit my flattened hand on this large tree - here's a target, Mr. Crossbow Hero - so the twin shoots his hand with an arrow - the bad guy pulls out the arrow and then....runs away. Yep. That's it. End of showdown. Plus the bad guy has a blond mohawk and always has a REAL short cigar in his mouth and his voice sounds like he's auditioning for Bluto in the Popeye cartoons. We loved this movie - for all the wrong/right reasons!!

Wow! What a totally funny movie. Two real twins, who are real martial artists, that can actually fight in real life, make a martial arts movie. Whodda thunk it? Yea the fight scenes could be better but they're not half bad, and all self choreographed on a total film budget less than one hours cost of a Hollywood effort. Lots of sly humor...just between the lines sort of stuff too. Corn? Sure there's some corny, campy stuff too but ya' gotta love lines like this one "Confucius say...when fighting truckers...nail the suckers". Yea, that's what I'm talking about!!!!! After kicking the crap out some belligerent truckers of course. Rent it, buy it, borrow it whatever...you gotta see it at least once!