User reviews

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)

When the movie ended, I pondered what I had just viewed. I had already wasted time watching the movie, now I wasted time contemplating all that was wrong with the movie.

It's no secret that less-than-adequate acting is a common trait in action movies, but this was extremely bad. It was as if the director accepted the first take for every scene. Some of the well known names in this movie did fine, but the two main characters were awful, as were the no-name actors.

Looks like this was filmed on location at an island resort. I'm guessing the crew either forgot to bring the lighting sets, or the budget wasn't big enough to cover the cost of transporting the lights to the location. Indoor and evening scenes were too dark. Maybe the darkness was intentional. Maybe the director realized the lame attempts at expressions needed to be concealed. If the cast of female babes in skimpy outfits was an attempt to make up for the acting, the effort failed due to lousy lighting.

If you do decide to rent this, I recommend fast forwarding to the fight scenes. They are somewhat decent. I was disappointed that Johnny Nguyen didn't do more fighting.

David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, Johnny Nguyen, Danielle Burgio, Arnold Chon, and even Carmen Electra should hang their heads in shame for signing up for this one.

I hope Hardt does better in the European scene. As for Krupa, she needs to stick to modeling.

Max Havoc is a sports photographer. He is in Guam on a job when he meets the beautiful Goody sisters - Jane and Christy. He and Jane hit it off but the pleasantness ends when the sisters become a target for a Yakuza gang after they take their rare, sacred jade dragon. He ends up in the middle of a fight for survival.

Very bad. The wafer-thin, predictable storyline that masquerades as a plot. The incredibly lame dialogue. The hammy acting. Even the action scenes are poorly done, to the point that they're quite laughable.

Joanna Krupa might well be the only reason to watch this. Such is the poorness of the other actors, and everything else, in this movie that, in addition to looking great, her acting actually seems okay.

Being from Guam, of course I wanted to see this film. Everyone made such a big deal about it and the Government put up the money for it.

What a really bad movie. It made little sense to me and was a waste of time. I watched it on TV here so I couldn't fast forward it!

Some of my friends were in it as extras, so I guess it was cool seeing them, but the shot they were in was out-of-focus, so even that was worthless. My friends were angry. I guess they waited for hours and hours and never got paid.

The only place this movie is ever gonna play is in the your local car-wash bin for $1.99. It's not even worth that!

Max Havoc is not a cinematic masterpiece. In fact it's a poorly produced movie. the attempt of trying to make a Hollywood action movie on a beer budget is clearly evident and does not work. What saves this train wreck of a movie is Joanna Krupa. She might be one of the hottest women in Hollywood. My GF said she can't act. I disagree and wish my GF would move out. She's a failed actress and comedian who hates on other people that actually appear in movies. Where Max Havoc took a bad turn was not more Joanna Krupa. The director or producer or studio should have included nudity parts with Joanna Krupa. When you cast eye candy you have to show eye candy. I do hate when movies feature a star like Carmen Electra on a DVD cover when they have a minor part in the movie. It's like bait and switch. I hope that Joanna Krupa is more movies.

We've all seen them: bad movies. However, MAX HAVOC: CURSE OF THE DRAGON sinks to uncharted lows of stupidity and boredom. I guess this mess seemed like a good idea to some mentally bankrupt "Hollywood Never-Beens," but even an Elementary school film-maker wouldn't be proud of this celluloid atrocity.

A sports photographer goes to the Island of Guam to shoot pictures of something, I don't know what and the screenwriters (There were two!!!) doesn't seem to know either. His name, Max Havoc, is straight out of a bad 80's action film (except it's a bad 2004 action film). While in Guam he runs into some girls who can't act and they involve him in some mind numbing plot points and there's lots of remedial kung-fu "action."

Carmen Electra is in the film for all of 10 seconds but she's got the top-billing. (Yeah, it's one of those rip-off films. The DVD case says: STARRING CARMEN ELECTRA and she's barely in the film. Not only are you, the viewer, ripped off by this film it looks like the Islanders on Guam were ripped off too as the producers got the Locals to sign a loan deal that went bad ((of course - they make bad movies and default on production loans!!)) or some such sh*t.)

There's all the clichéd scenes you expect in a Grade-F "action film." Lots of slow-motion, yelling and running around. No car chases but there is an "action" scene with a boat that's going about 2mph! The girls don't take any clothes off, so you don't even got that. The film reminded me of one of those bad "skin-a-max" films you see in Hotel rooms, except there was no porn in this film just bad story, bad sets, bad acting, bad lighting and bad direction. At least the film-makers were consistently bad: Not one single good thing appears anywhere in this film!

The film ends (thank you, God!): Max Havoc chases away the bad kung-fu guys and gets the girl, Guam gets pinched for the film's budget and you, for having made the mistake of picking this turd up, gets ripped off for whatever Blockbuster charged you.

A friend of mine in Guam sent me a video of this movie that was made there with Guam Government money. It was utterly stupid and beyond pointless. I feel bad for the Guam Government for losing money in the scam. They'll never make money on this pile o' sh*t movie.

It's about a sport's photographer who goes to Guam to take pictures of some hotel. He meets some girls (playboy model Joanna Kruppa plays one of the girls - in a cover story for Playboy Kruppa called MAX HAVOC "really stupid!" Well she's right) and some kung-fu gang is chasing her. I don't know why. Anyways, Max Havoc helps her out. The fights are so poorly done, it looks like stuff my kids shoot on their Hi-8 Video camera. But beyond that, MAX HAVOC is so BORING. You want to fast forward through it, but that doesn't even help!

The movie makes not a lick of sense and it's hard to imagine someone making a film this bad. I IMDb'd MAX HAVOC director Albert Pyun and he makes really awful movies, so I guess it makes sense that he made MAX HAVOC. That seems to be his forte: making really bad movies, but not "so bad they're good" movies say in the spirit of Ed Wood, his movies just flat out suck. Talk about ZERO talent. I wonder if he cons people like he conned the Guam Government when he made this film. What a legacy!

If you see this movie in the video store (somehow I don't think it will ever make it off the island of Guam), hold your nose!

Do not rent this movie. If you read the other comments, its obvious that this film is a total flop. It's not even worth watching just to laugh at how lame it is. But the truth is that the people of Guam were scammed by the movie's producers. The Guam Government thought that this film, featuring famous actress Carmen Electra, would help advertise Guam's beauty and increase tourism. So the government lent the producers money to help finance the film.

Guam is a small island in the middle of nowhere. It's very rare that any one of relative fame visits the island. The people were very excited about a movie being filmed on their island. Many spent long hours in the hot sun as film extras. The film crew stayed in nice hotels and were treated like royalty. The producers took advantage of the islanders excitement and gave them nothing in return. The Governemnt has never been payed back for the money they lent on this lousy film. Do the good people of Guam a favor. Instead of paying money on this film, stuff a couple of dollars in an envelope and send it to the Gov Guam. Or better yet, visit Guam and experience the islands beauty for your self.

The movie starts off with a bunch of stock footage of a motor-bike race, and continues for about another 15 minutes until there's a fight at a bar with sports Photographer Max Havoc (they don't tell us his middle name) and some bimbo.

Then we're off to Guam for some travel promo stuff, and then the films over.

Sure there's a couple of poorly executed fights, some running around in a hotel, a row boat/swimmer wreak, and about 350 shots of the same slow-mo shot of Max punching someone, but that's about it.

Albert Pyun has made the worst movie of his sorry-ass career (I mean it, too. It's worse then those Urban Menace films)

This movie had to be a scam, all the way around. Someone got some movie budget money in their pockets and now everything's in court.

Can I file a lawsuit against Pyun & Co. for having had watch this thing?

Don't waste a penny of your $ or a second of your time on Max Havoc- Curse of the Dragon

I saw it with friends here on Guam yesterday. I liked it. It's goofy like those films from HK back in the 1970's. Had a old fashioned quality to it. If anything I thought the film was trying to be to PC and that would be because of its ties to the government. So it was limited perhaps in being more graphically violent as movies like these are. I liked the star, Max. He reminded me of Richard Chamberlin. Very much a straight up hero. LOVED TAWNEY SABLAN. She was great and much prettier than the model playing her sister. I liked how Guam was portrayed and thought Carmen Elctra was gorgeous and fun. The story was dumb but so were the HK films back in the 1970. Although I saw Transformer today and you talk about DUMB. That movie was stupid and boring. This one is just harmless time passer. My only real complaint except for the story was it would have been nice for Max to fall in love with a local girl. That would have it made it much better for me.

Don't believe all these negative reviews here for MAX HAVOC: CURSE OF THE DRAGON, it's worse. Way worse.

This is one of those films you sort of stumble upon at the video store, and everything else good or halfway good is already checked out, so you give it a shot, knowing full well the film is going to suck. But just how bad MAX HAVOC sucks may shock you: It's dull, boring, tiresome, listless, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Someone on one of these reviews here compares MAX HAVOC to an episode of MANGNUM P.I., except MANGNUM P.I. is at lest a competent product. MAX HAVOC is wretchedly bad. It's the kind of bad-film in which you wonder while watching it: "How do films like this get made?" A very good question.

MAX HAVOC was made by consistently bad film maker Albert Pyun. You wonder why anyone would knowingly hire this hack. The film is full of stock footage, bad acting, the list can go on forever.

There is currently some kinda controversy over the financing of the film. The island of Guam put up the money for this film (who can say why. I guess they have never seen an Albert Pyun film because that's exactly what they got: An Albert Pyun incompetent sh*t film.)

Folks, if you're a film investor and you see the name Albert Pyun attached to the film some slimy film producer is asking you to invest in, be afraid. Be very afraid.

If this film were an animal it would be taken out back and shot and put out of it's misery. If you're unfortunate enough to have to endure this dung-heap DVD, you may wish someone would shoot you and put you out of your misery.

MAX HAVOC: CURSE OF THE DRAGON is maximum incompetencey, maximum tedium, and maximum thievery.

Living here on Guam, I thought it presented our island well. Would it be nicer for it to have better actors and story, yes, of course. But for what it is it wasn't too bad. I have seen far worse (unfortunately) but generally my friends here liked it. And it did get Guam more attention than the millions the government and its visitors bureau waste on cheesy islander adverts. The film was just too plain and has a dreadful lead actress. I think Joanna Crupa was her her name. Painful to watch and brought the whole effort down in my opinion. I thought the Max was okay. Not bad as an actor or star. Our own Tawney Sablan was the best thing about the film. She was cute and more believable than the bimbo playing her older sister. I like it that they used a local talent in such a big part and that really added to the enjoyment. I also thought the photography of the island was good. I heard from my nephew that the film went through many changes and more shooting in Los Angeles to add stars like David Carradine (R.I.P). He had seen a different version which he said made more sense but I thought this version was okay. Except for that stupid blonde actress! She was horrible. Go Tawney!

The Movie is p*ss-poor and stupid. I fell asleep about 45 minutes into it cause it was so dull.

The story is about some kick boxer turned photographer (badly acted by some dumb German chump)who goes to Guam and takes some photos of the beach. He meets up with two girls in swimsuits (they don't take em off, sad to say, cause the chicks weren't hired for their acting ability) who are being chased by the Japanese Mafia. It's suppose to be an action movie, but the action is dull and is amateurishly done. I fell asleep during some supposed action sequence where everybody's fighting in slow motion, or something like that. When I woke up the film was over and I took it back to the video store and said it didn't work in my DVD player and they gave me credit for a free movie. The guy working behind the counter said that a couple of people have rented the title and they all have come back and said how sh***y the movie is. I told the guy he should just throw the thing in the trash and he did.

Max Havoc - What can I say about Max Havoc?

In 2003 producer John Laing and notable (for all the wrong reasons) director Albert Pyun convinced the government of Guam to invest $800,000 for the filming of Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon. Laing and Pyun touted that the film would create 300 jobs on the impoverished island, and that those individuals would get the chance to work again when they shot a sequel later in 2004. They even promised a third film for the following year. Guam bent over backwards for these goofs, with businesses big and small offering their assistance in order to further develop Guam's economy. According to some, Laing and Pyun actually suggested that the film would receive a theatrical release. Okay everyone, get ready for a countdown. 3, 2, 1.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Guam's motivation for funding the film was economic development. In the end the crew members from both the U.S. and Guam were never paid. Once Laing's company officially defaulted on the loan, financial shenanigans occurred that ended with Guam making a mere $9,000 from the deal. Laing's Up North Entertainment, meanwhile, managed to buy the film back from the bank that paid off the loan for $83,000. Someone went to the Tanya York School of Business. David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, and Carmen Electra (for about 15 seconds) all appear…

Somebody else here said in their comments that Albert Pyun couldn't direct his way out of a paper bag, that's wrong. Albert Pyun and John Laing couldn't direct or produce their way out of a pay toilet.

Due to the controversy involving a defaulted loan secured by the government of Guam, I had a particular interest in getting to watch this movie. More than the usual, being an Albert Pyun fan as I am.

Pyun goes back to the late 80's and early 90's with this movie, the days when he directed wooden martial artists like Jean Claude Van Damme, Olivier Gruner and Sasha Mitchell.

This movie revolves around a former kick-boxing champ turned sports photographer, and his peculiar ability to run into trouble wherever he goes. Funny enough, his name is Max Havoc. Mr. Havoc is sent to Guam for an easy job and to relax. BUt he runs into, first, with two troublesome teen sisters, one smart and one brain-dead (guess for which he fell?), and then with an entire Japanese organization, who's after a stolen jade dragon.

The lead is the Swiss nobody Mickey Hardt. He has the charisma of an amoeba, and his acting skills leave much to be desired. But this is not a dramatic piece, or the tale of an epic battle. This is a martial arts flick and in what regards kicking and punching and beating, Hardt does not disappoint. And despite this, Havoc is a well-natured fellow. Probably the guy every father'd want for her daughter (I just said that? Lame.) There're some strange surprises on the cast. Richard Roundtree ("SHaft") plays Havoc's former trainer now antique dealer. Carmen Elektra tries to "show her place" to Havoc during four scenes, for which she got one hundred grand. David Carradine plays Bill... again. All in automatic. Don't expect any acting shocking you.

Then there are these two sisters. Neither of them can act well and there's this strange lesbic trend in their scenes together. Not as evident as in Bill's...sorry, Carradine's assistants, and way too subtle.

Pyun's directing is normal here. The fights are well-choreographed yet there's an unnecessary over-repetition of the flashback scene that could have been done without. It lacks that special something though.

Far better than some action junk Lorenzo Lamas has done. It has good martial arts, nice scenes, beautiful views of Guam, plenty of girls in bikini, but you'll want to press MUTE when the sisters start talking. It's a watchable flick. For only one watch.

I found this film on the bottom shelf of the video store I go to and I gave it a shot. Stupid me: It was on the bottom of the shelf for a reason....

This want-to-be martial arts film takes place here on the island of Guam (BTW, the Government of Guam got duped into giving the producer and director the budget for the film in hopes of encouraging tourism on the Island. Of course all the producer and director gave them was a stupid worthless movie. It seems the producer and director got 800,000$ from the Government of Guam for a 3rd party loan and then the film makers defaulted on the loan, formed a new company and bought back the film for 9,000$. And of course Guam is out the 800,000$...).

Two sisters steal a jade statue from some Japanese gangsters and Max Haovc, visiting the island to photograph something or another, helps the sisters out. Max Havoc (yeah, that's his name. You kinda get an idea about how good the script is to a film where they name their main character Max Havoc) was a kick boxer who killed a man in the ring (we know this from the 450 times the incident is shown in SLOW MOTION FLASHBACK).

The martial arts fights are 4th rate, the acting is 5th rate, the music is 6th rate, the direction is 7th rate and so on...

The whole movie has a "rip-off" vibe to it. Carmen Electra is billed as the star and she's in it for about 45 seconds, so yeah, it's one of those "rip-off" movies on the bottom of the video store shelf. It's best to just leave it there, collecting dust.

Don't waste your time or money. Seriously God awful....

When you name hack-ass Albert Pyun as your director you have to expect a train wreck on screen. And when David Carradine and Carmen Elektra are your star powers you have little hope at finding an audience. All of this synergy comes to pass on this long stewing mess of an action film that makes little sense and makes the least out of a tropical setting.

As an opener we watch a tepid heist take place where a Jade dragon statue is stolen. Next we meet Max, a former kick-boxing champ turned sports photographer, as he submits shots of a motocross race to his manager. Max has fallen into this profession after accidentally killing a man in the ring. In case you do not pick up on this detail Pyun will replay this scene of tragedy close to two dozen times. Max's agent tells him he next has a cushy assignment to shoot promo spots for a beach resort. Next we see the statue getting pawned with an antiques buyer named Tahsi, (Richard Roundtree) and soon Jane, a gorgeous art dealer, nabs the expensive dragon for pennies on the dollar. Tashi turns out to be Max's former trainer who naturally turned antiquities broker. A Japanese syndicate arrives to reclaim their prized artifact, and Max has to protect the pretty gal and her sister.

Max, Tahsi, Jane, the thief, and the Japanese syndicate all converge together on, of all places, the island of Guam. Why does Max's assignment, Tahsi's shop, and the sister's vacation, as well as the thieves attempt at fencing stolen goods, all take place on this remote spit of land way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Certainly it would have nothing to do with the government of Guam bankrolling this ludicrous production in the hopes of luring future Hollywood projects on their island. For close to a million dollars they got German soap opera performer Mickey Hardt in the lead, while Carmen Elektra was reportedly paid $100 thousand to appear in four scenes, two of which requires she only look into the camera and smile. All told she utters maybe four lines of dialogue, justifying getting featured on the cover. Carradine is simply there to collect a paycheck and for his part spent a day at a Hollywood studio, but he is seen throughout the film, courtesy of the endless flashbacks we endure.

Pyun the auteur gives us repeated scenes shot in hotel rooms and hallways, slapdash action sequences that are edited with a butcher cleaver, and moronic dialogue that is distracted away with cleavage. And every single scene has to begin with exterior shots of a building, a-la 1970's TV detective dramas. It turns out the dragon is an urn, holding some remains of the Yakuza founder, but Jane needs to sell it for her sister to go to college. Max steps in to avenge the death of Tahsi and save the gal, and we are left with only one thought: the director and producers should be punished for this dung heap. I would suggest banishment to a remote island out in the middle of the ocean.

I spoke to someone that worked on the crew that shot all the non-Guam footage which includes everything with David Carradine, Richard Roundtree and the bad guys footage. The original director, Pyun, had been gone from the film for awhile because the film was shutdown because it had run out of money. When money came in the film was taken over by a Israeli producer. This producer and a new director, also Israeli, re-shoot quite a bit of the film and did all the editing. The version that got out is their work as well as the people at Rigel Entertainment who he said were involved in shaping the final film. Word on the set was that Pyun's version was too soft and played like a Magnum PI episode instead of the hard action Jet Li film Rigel wanted. He saw some of Pyun's version and it was like a G rated tropical TV movie and had no stock footage. Nicely pretty and light. He was a little shocked at the final result from the re-shoots and final editing. He thought it looked like the producer couldn't figure out what he wanted to do. Just thought you viewers might want to know. I usually like seeing director's cuts on DVD. Maybe they will come out with Pyun's. Sounds like there are truly different films.

Hack Film Director Albert Pyun and Hack Movie Producer John Laing lay a turd. The backstory of how this pile of garbage got made is 100 million times more interesting then the film itself: both Pyun and Laing convinced the Guam Government to put up an $800,000 loan guaranty to make the film, then they defaulted on the film loan, stiffing the citizens of Guam. The film is painfully boring, not even interesting in a fun kinda so-bad-it's-good way. It just flat out sucks. It's out of focus most of the time, the acting stinks, the writing could have come from a 1st-grader and on and on. Don't waste your money. Someone ought to make a movie about how Albert Pyun and John Laing robbed the Island of Guam in the making of this film.

I just saw the movie Max Havoc at a theater on Guam. I did not like the beginning but as a whole it was enjoyable. Most of the fight scenes were actually pretty good. There are some talented martial artists in this movie. It would be tough the fake the level of skill they demonstrated.

A large portion of this movie was shot on Guam. The first part of the movie is weak but it does get better as it goes along. It has the feel of a seventies TV show. With that in mind it was not bad.

There are a few remarks about sharks which are not true. Sharks have never really been a problem on Guam.

The beauty of Guam as a location for a movie easily stands out. For anyone who is somehow connected to Guam this movie is a must see.

This movie is sooooo bad and not in a "so bad its good" way. Its so bad in an annoying way. The lighting was downright amateur and the acting was just as bad. I ended up seeing his steaming pile of horse manure movie when my brother bought it on a bargain for $2.99 brand new. hmmm...I wonder why it was so cheap. He is a fan of really bad David Caradine films. He figured this would be one of those films where you can laugh at the badness like "Dune Warriors". Turns out this film is some sort of film propaganda to go vacation in Guam. Its hilarious that they put in stock footage of Guam in the movie, I laughed my ass off. Whatever you do, don't rent or buy this movie it is a pile of dog dooky.

this film sucks.

You've got to wonder, who made this? Oh yeah, the master of crap himself Albert Pyun. The fact that Pyun and the producer jacked the people of Guam to fund this movie is only to be expected. Pyun and his producer are Hollywood hucksters that make crap film after crappy film.

After getting swindled by Pyun and his producer out of a million dollars, I wonder how the people of Guam feel who don't seem to have money for schools and roads and basic needs of their citizens ?

If you see this in your video store - run, don't walk. It's a complete piece of sh*t. But say a prayer for the people of Guam who are in the process of suing the film makers....

It's so god d*mn awful that you feel genuinely sorry for the director and producer and all the awful people that made max havoc: curse of the dragon a reality. The film is so bad you feel like tossing everyone involved a quarter so they can get some food, water, and a room to get out of the rain for the night.

It's about a sport's photographer, Max Havoc, who goes to Guam to take some pictures of a hotel and ends up in a fight over a jade dragon. It's a stupid 80's action movie made in 2004, how stupid is that?

it's painful to sit thru the whole thing, but me and my friends did. It's bad, start to finish. It's 90 minutes of my life I will never get back