Product Description

Matthew McConaughey (U-571) and Christian Bale (SHAFT) star in an explosive action-packed adventure with bone-charring special effects that will have you glued to your seat! When workers in a London tunneling project awaken an unearthly fire-breathing beast from centuries of slumber, all hell breaks loose. Twelve-year-old Quinn (Bale) sees his mother, one of the workers, die trying to escape this new terror. Twenty years later as a "fire chief," he tries to keep a group of refugees alive with fierce dragons dominating the air, burning the land and feeding on the ash. Unexpectedly, Van Zan (McConaughey), a hotshot American militia leader, shows up with a ragtag group of slayers on a perilous crusade to hunt down and destroy the beasts. Tempers flare when there is a struggle for leadership -- until both men realize only one species is getting out of this alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8619 in DVD
• Brand: Disney
• Released on: 2002-11-19
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
The Road Warrior meets Dragonslayer in the briskly entertaining post-apocalyptic action thriller Reign of Fire. Reign of Fire exists primarily to give us a bigger and better dragon than the Vermithrax Pejorative of 1981's classic Dragonslayer, and in that regard, the special effects are mightily impressive; the reptilian fire-breathers are stupendously convincing. While the earlier film offers a richer, more whimsical medieval adventure, Reign of Fire is a fast-moving tale of man versus dragon that takes place in the charred England of 2020, after Earth has been scorched by rapidly multiplying dragons and the aftermath of a futile nuclear counterstrike. Mixing high-tech gadgetry with primitive survivalism, X-Files alumnus Rob Bowman makes the most of his midlevel budget, establishing a lavish castle base for the rugged, adversarial teaming of Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as dragonslayers on the brink of extinction. With a steady supply of crowd-pleasing highlights, Reign of Fire is a pyrotechnical treat. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Fire-breathing dragons menace postapocalyptic society in the director Rob Bowman's fantasy-adventure romp. The film stars a buff-beyond-belief Matthew McConaughey and the hunky Christian Bale, who participate in some spectacular lizard-slaying stunts. The sets and costumes recall the "Road Warrior" series, and Bowman shamelessly encourages a scenery-chewing hysteria in his leads. Mesmerizing junk. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

A pyrotechnical B-movie masterpiece
I honestly do not understand all the bad reviews that Reign of Fire received when it opened. Most people expected an Independence Day style brainless special effects vehicle and instead they got a slow paced character driven sci-fi flick. I guess these are the same people who thought XXX was a masterpiece. Anyway, I love Reign of Fire for everything it is and isn't. Matthew McConaughey (who it is great to see in another great movie without Hollywood gloss, see Frailty to see what I mean) brings to life one of his best roles in the dragonslaying Van Zan, while Christian Bale proves once again that he isn't just female eye candy (for another example see American Psycho). Both actors are fantastic, while X-Files film director Rob Bowman moves the film at a purposely slow pace so that every time we get a glimpse of a dragon it leaves the viewer wanting more and eventually getting it. The dragons themselves must be seen to be believed, they breathe, move, and stalk like one would imagine a dragon would in real life. All in all, Reign of Fire is a masterful high grade B-movie that shines without the Hollywood gloss, and is a true treat of a film.

The Truth About Dragons
A London construction project uncovers a horrible secret and a young boy loses his mother at the same time. A tunnel project has awakened a dragon. Soon they breed like rats and proceed to burn civilization and all life into oblivion. They have been here before but we did not recognize the signs. Their attack is so quick that years later humanity is all but completely wiped out.

The young boy is now a young man and in charge of a group of refugees trying to reestablish themselves. Dragons are getting desperate as their food supply is almost completely gone. But internal and external forces combine to bring great change. Some residents are losing faith and want to go against the community's plan. A group of American military arrive and they specialize in killing dragons. They also have a crazy plan for getting rid of the dragons for good but they need more men.

This tale of survivors facing impossible odds with an iron will to survive is well crafted and easily rewatchable. The acting is good while the effects are excellent. but this is not a movie about dragons, it is a movie about people and how they deal with adversity. Although the movie is really about people, the dragons are wonderful and full of menace. Definitely worth watching.

An atypical "B" flick with grade-A effects!
Sure, this movie is a mish-mash of Mad Max, King Arthur, and Dragonslayer. Sure there are holes and a few question marks in the plot. But then again...we're watching a movie about dragons and the people who live in a future time where dragons rule so, why question it to begin with?
I was afraid of seriously cheesey dragon effects a la Dungeons and Dragons, but WOW was I pleasantly surprised! The creatures were well textured and moved almost cat-like. The fire they breathed didn't look all pixellated like a lot of fire done with CGI. That all combined to deliver a good-looking (?) set of monsterous dragons.
The sound was probably the best I've heard in a long time. The theater I saw it in is set up for Dolby Digital surround...and let me tell you: this movie made FULL use of the sound system!!! Dragons flying all around you..and when they growled..whoa..puts a shiver down your spine!!!
Go see it, don't believe it....just enjoy it. The actors are all excellent, even though at times the British actors's accents were so thick it made understanding them all but impossible. This movie is around 1 hr. and 40 minutes long...not too short and not too long...but long enough enjoy the heck out of yourself!!!