Back in 1985, the film The Last Dragon was unleashed on an unsuspecting public. No one needed this movie (well, maybe Vanity did… girls gotta eat, I guess) but there it was. Directed by Mike Schultz (yep the same guy that directed Cooley High) the movie follows martial artist Bruce Leroy as he searches for “the master”. During his quest he meets a VJ/singer (remember when "VJ" was a job?) named Laura Charles (played by Vanity) that he has to protect from a crazy music promoter as well as deal with Sho'nuff, the Shogun of Harlem, who sees Leroy as an obstacle in his quest to be the true martial arts master.
Yeah, this movie had a lot going on.
During a conversation with a co-worker, this movie came up. She feels that Bruce Leroy is one of the great movie martial arts characters. I think she is crazy, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. This began a week long debate about who would win in a fight with Bruce Leroy.
Naturally I thought that this would make a good multi-part blog post.
The Last Dragon had some fight scenes, but was not rife with them. Being that this was the only appearance of Bruce Leroy, you really don't have much to go on. There were maybe 2 legitimate fights featuring Leroy in the film, so it is those scenes that will be used to support/disprove Leroy's status as either a "Master" or just some jerk.
So, without further delay...
Bruce Leroy vs. John Lawrence (from The Karate Kid, 1984)
Bruce Leroy:
This is the best fight in The Last Dragon. It is the climactic fight between Leroy (played by Taimak) and Sho'nuff (played by the late great Julius Carry) for all the marbles, music videos and whatever the hell else they were fighting for. This is the best example of Leroy's skill, so get used to seeing this during however long this series goes.
Leroy wins, and was only able to do so when he finally got his shit together and found "the Glow", better known as his self confidence. Mr. Nuff is defeated and Leroy goes on to be annoying another day.
John Lawrence:
Mr. Lawrence spent the majority of The Karate Kid beating the crap out of Ralph Macchio's Daniel Larusso for every reason known to man. There is even some debate that Johnny was going to kill Daniel after he was given an unwanted shower by Larusso when Johnny was trying to roll a joint.
Ah, teenagers.
This video shows a semi-final match between Johnny (William Zabka) and the poor bastard in his way to that championship, Daryl Vidal. The audio is in Spanish, but we are here to watch, not listen:
There is a reason that scene was less than 2 minutes long: Johnny is efficient. He struck when an opening presented itself, and proceeded to lay the smack down on that kid like a surgeon. Yeah, Johnny lost in the finals, but that's because this is Hollywood, not real life.
The Verdict:
Johnny wins easily. As Bruce looks for the Glow the whole time, Johnny is busy dolling out a complete ass whipping in about 3-4 minutes. Johnny doesn't have an issue with self confidence, so he is glowing like a small sun that should be burning Leroy's retinas. After dispatching Bruce Leroy, he then takes Vanity out to a nice dinner and regales her with tales of how he once beat up a kid from New Jersey that thought he could learn Karate from a janitor in a month.
YOU LOSE, LEROY.
NEXT:
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| Bruce Leroy |
VS.
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| Nico Toscani |
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