Home :: DVD :: Art House & International  

Asian Cinema
British Cinema
European Cinema
General
Latin American Cinema
Bruce Lee the Master Collection

Bruce Lee the Master Collection

List Price: $39.98
Your Price: $29.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Box set lacking
Review: Its a shame that a company owning the rights to release four of bruce lee's movies would not do it correctly. especially considering bruce lee has probably make them alot of dough. i give the box set two stars and thats just because bruce lee is in it. the dvd's offer no added features. the picture in fist of fury is awfull. the american 'john wayne' voice dubbing for bruce lee was even worse. i would have rather had the option to read subtitles and hear the original chinese voices. i would recomend finding a chinise release of these movies with a english subtitle at least. because this set doesn't even begin to match the quality that bruce lee deserves.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great buy, but image and sound quality over-hyped
Review: Just got my copy of the Bruce Lee Master Collection - great packaging, really feels like a collection, with a wide, gatefold sleeve revealing 5 matching discs. However, having read the other reviews, many of which excitedly refer to the wonderful quality of the image and sound, I was itching to get these discs on, with my big screen TV and AC-3 sound system. Having bought and enjoyed Enter the Dragon, remastered and with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, I was expecting more of the same. However, despite an adequate picture and sound, the audio/visual quality comes nowhere close to Enter the Dragon. The picture quality beats the pants off the old VHS tapes, and improves slightly from Fist of Fury through to Game of Death, but doesn't really live up to the hype of the other reviews. The dubbed sound, mono in all cases, is disappointing after reading the reviews, with the tinny music and voices that always seem too high or too low for their characters. Let's face it, the oldest of this movies is 30 years old, and some of the previous VHS/DVD releases have been [really bad], so by all means let's celebrate the fact that we can get good prints of these seminal movies in one boxed set but let's not kid ourselves that the picture is sharp and clear and the sound rings honest and true. Fox had done a good job, sure, but Enter the Dragon this ain't, and we shouldn't expect it to be. Don't get me wrong - this is a must have for Bruce Lee fans, but buy it for the right reasons - to get hold all Bruce's HK movies in one go. There are Collector's Editions of Fists, Way/Return of the Dragon and Game of Death (the last being a 2-disc set available in October) available on Region 2, with remastered anamorphic images, DD 5.1 sound and bundles of extras. It will be interesting to see how the two regions' discs compare in "hand-to-hand combat".

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This is total POOPOLA! WHERE is the FREAKIN MIRROR SCENE?
Review: Ok. I'm in tears. I love all these movies, but they forgot one thing that made we want to beat up twenty guys at once and have a brain edema. Of course you see the "MASTER COLLECTION" and go, "Hey... It must have that movie with the mirrors in it." ... and you know it's really called "Enter The Freakin' Dragon," but you buy the 80$ box because you're sure it's in it even though the movie actually in the box is called "Return Of The Dragon." So you get the box home and start watching a movie every night. Finally, when Game of Death comes around, you're like, "This has to be the movie with the freakin' mirrors in it for goodness sake." Then you don't even see the real bruce Lee too often.. And when you do, it's a cut out of his face keyed onto another guy's body! Then you start to read the box... And find out that there is a movie called "Enter The Dragon." Then you start to cry.. realizing that the Master collection, although a wonderful gift from God, is not the "MASTER COLLECTIONN," but basically the one nobody would buy if there was a true "MASTER COLLECTION" with "ENTER THE freakin' DRAGON" in it. I would love to give this box a five, but I have to give it a 3, because ME and BRUCE are so upset that so many people got tricked and now have to buy a sith disc. He was a man of honor... Still is in my book! Why are the manufacturers or "Marketers" of this facade trying to ruin that honor?!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Bruce Lee -- Region 1
Review: So, here it is, the latest collection of DVD's featuring all of Bruce Lee's Hong Kong movies (Fists of Fury aka The Big Boss, The Chinese Connection aka Fists of Fury, Return of the Dragon, Game of Death, and an additional documentary Bruce Lee, the Legend) in one pretty package. Note that Enter the Dragon, made by Warner Brothers and considered by many to be Bruce's finest (and certainly his most polished) film, is not included in this boxed set. Likewise, the version of Game of Death offered is the original 1977 release, without any of the recently unearthed and restored footage featured in A Warrior's Journey. Also, these are English-dubbed, edited (for the western market) versions of the films. All in all though, this is probably the best collection of Bruce's films available in the U.S.

Of course, 30 years after Bruce's death, these movies are a bit campy now -- with Fists of Fury only a few steps up from Sunday afternoon 'action theater' crapola, and Game of Death (pieced together after Bruce's death with an actor double, clips from old movies, and even a cardboard cut-out to make up for his absence in all but the final fight scenes) an unmitigated travesty -- but the charismatic screen presence and fighting skills of Bruce will always satisfy die hard fans (which are the likely target consumer for this boxed set). After all, you don't really watch this genre of movie for plot, but for the fighting, which was innovative at the time (differing from both the usual chop-sockey shenanigans as well as today's wushu-style 'wire-fu'), and to see the man who started it all and has attained an almost Elvis-level deity status.

Okay, so here's the bad news... These U.S. Region 1 DVD's pale in comparison to the versions available in Region 2 put out by the Hong Kong Legends company (http://hongkonglegends.co.uk/ -- see for yourself). They have just released a 30th Anniversary boxed set of these movies -- their editions (which can only be viewed on DVD players that can play Region 2 movies) feature the original Cantonese language versions of the movies (as well as the English), the uncut/unedited versions (in which mild nude scenes or corny comedic sequences are left intact), with lots of additional features (critical commentaries and other extras). There simply isn't any comparison and it is a crying shame these are not available in the U.S. (though apparently some HKL titles are beginning to come to the U.S. market). Any serious Bruce Lee fan will want the HKL versions instead -- as for me, I'm off to buy a region free DVD player.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: GET THE HONG KONG LEGENDS VERSION
Review: The Warner Brothers set is very good-I bought it, however it's annoying that these dvds are not anamorphic and they don't have the original soundtrack. However, if you are a Bruce Lee fanatic, and you have a PAL converter and a multiregion dvd player that can play region 2 discs, you MUST get the Hong Kong Legends versions.This is a UK company. They released these four films,minus Enter the Dragon, in beautiful, restored, remastered anamorphic widescreen transfers. This is heaven if you have a widescreen TV. These discs are loaded with extras, plus they have several soundtracks, so you can watch the original Chinese with English subtitles, or the English dubbed version. It's amazing, but Region 2 really outdid Region 1 in this case. You can order these from amazon.com.uk. Hong Kong Legends has a website where you can check out all their releases. They have many titles available, including some Jackie Chan and Jet Li films, all with the same high quality.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally, the quality he deserves!
Review: There have been some absolutely awful transfers of Bruce Lee movies in the past. This is NOT one of them! The video and audio quality are absolutely fantastic, with only the smallest artifacts!

There's no extras on the movie discs, which is too bad (audio commentary would have been a nice touch), but since there's a whole documentary disc included, there's no reason to complain.

And the movies ... well, it's Bruce Lee! What else is there to say?

In short, this is the quality of video Bruce Lee fans have been waiting for! No more second rate tenth generation copies from seedy no-name companies -- this is the real deal!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best I've been able to find, but...
Review: There is no denying the fundamental importance of these movies to any fan of action, and now that the price has dropped from the original $54 I can wholeheartedly recommend this version. Be forewarned, however, that the collection does NOT include Enter the Dragon, due to copyright issues with WB studios (This set is released by 20th Century Fox) and it also does NOT contain the original language dialogue, which was a huge disappointment to me. The gem of the collection is "The Chinese Connection", which shows some fun examples of Bruce expanding his role as an actor as well as a martial artist. Just as a heads up, this movie, originally released as Fists of Fury in HK, actually has a quality (for HK films of this era) sequel starring Jackie Chan that most people haven't heard of. Called New Fist of Fury, I thought that this was one of Jackie's better earlier films as well.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best I've been able to find, but...
Review: There is no denying the fundamental importance of these movies to any fan of action, and now that the price has dropped from the original $54 I can wholeheartedly recommend this version. Be forewarned, however, that the collection does NOT include Enter the Dragon, due to copyright issues with WB studios (This set is released by 20th Century Fox) and it also does NOT contain the original language dialogue, which was a huge disappointment to me. The gem of the collection is "The Chinese Connection", which shows some fun examples of Bruce expanding his role as an actor as well as a martial artist. Just as a heads up, this movie, originally released as Fists of Fury in HK, actually has a quality (for HK films of this era) sequel starring Jackie Chan that most people haven't heard of. Called New Fist of Fury, I thought that this was one of Jackie's better earlier films as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE GREATEST COLLECTION EVER
Review: THERE IS NO ONE BETTER THAN BRUCE LEE IN MARITAL ART

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Dragon is back and better than ever!
Review: This 5 disc set is truly amazing and for everyone who has ever even liked Bruce Lee. The quailtiy of picture and sound is amazing. My favorite discs in the set are Return of the Dragon and Chinese Connection, Fist of Fury is good too and Game of Death, although doesnt feature much of Bruce, is important for all fans to have, and Legend is historic! All one needs after thise set is Enter the Dragon...Warner Bros own this title as Fox owns the rest so Enter the Dragon could not be included.

The Dragon is Back!


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates