Home :: DVD :: Art House & International :: Asian Cinema  

Asian Cinema

British Cinema
European Cinema
General
Latin American Cinema
Fists of Fury (AKA The Big Boss)

Fists of Fury (AKA The Big Boss)

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best of the best
Review: This is the best Bruce Lee movie of all time.Buy this movie and if you wanna see the movie before you buy goto your local movie store and rent it good movie see the classic bruce Lee in action. And this movie was not made in 1972 it was made in oct of 1971.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Bruce's breakthrough movie...
Review: This is, in my opinion, the weakest of Bruce's three HK action films (I don't count "Game Of Death" as a REAL Bruce Lee flick). But the man only starred in four movies his entire life, and it's always a kick to see the guy in action, so as his legend deepens, the more his fans will salivate and gobble up whatever's served up on the WA-TAAH! plate.

The production value is almost laughable, and the English dubbing (in regards to the Fox DVD) is absolutely abysmal, but there's only one reason to ever watch a Bruce Lee movie: Bruce Lee. No matter how amateur the film is, or how frickin' lame the plot is, it doesn't take away from his lightning-fast talent. God, if only he'd have lived longer. One can only imagine what he'd have done.

"Enter The Dragon" is his best, but if you've already seen it a dozen times and want to try out his earlier stuff, first check out "The Chinese Connection," "Way (or Return) Of The Dragon" and then this one.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Fists of a Youthful Fury: The Early Lee
Review: Those who view FISTS OF FURY expecting to see the high grade Hollywood magic later so evident in ENTER THE DRAGON will be disappointed. FOF is the early Bruce Lee, still trying to establish his own screen persona. His learning curve stretched for several more years. What becomes evident is a movie that has all the hallmarks of Hong Kong kung fu flicks: simpering Chinese girls in pigtails who cry in every other scene; the Oriental equivalent of the 'comic darkey' who tries pathetically hard to tell jokes; some truly atrocious plotting, scripting, dubbing, directing; villains who laugh as they do evil and twirl their mustaches in a manner that brings to mind Snidely Whiplash; and then there are the fight scenes. For most of the first half, Bruce Lee does not fight at all. Bound by a promise to an uncle who seems cosmically ignorant, Lee allows others to fight for him. After a while, the audience begins to pay less attention to the minimal plot and more to wondering when Lee will do more than just watch others battle.
Lee begins the movie as Cheng, who gets a job working in an ice factory run by drug dealers who hide their drugs and victims in rolling blocks of ice. He promises not to fight and the only suspense that the film generates is when he will break his promise. Well into the second half, he discovers the true nature of the ice factory and then follows two scenes of martial arts worth noting. The first occurs in the ice factory when he confronts and disposes of an entire platoon of pathetic opposition. One of the problems I saw in this fight was the incredible stupidity of the bad guys. They outnumber Lee. They surround Lee. But they attack him only one at a time while the others bounce up and down making ridiculous kata movements. If they had jumped him en masse Lee would have surely gone down. The second fight scene was the climactic one-on-one encounter between Lee and the Evil Boss (no not Vince McMahon). This fight is one of those drawn out exhibitions whose phoniness only manages to expose the lack of fighting ability of the Evil Boss. Since it was so easy for Lee to wipe the floor with the Boss's lackeys, why then does it take so long to take out their boss? The answer to this conumdrum does not become evident until several Lee movies later when Bruce Lee recognizes that for him to look good, he needs a worthy opponent. He did not find one in FOF, a movie that will be of interest only to those who are fanatical about seeing every movie he was in. If you like Bruce Lee but are not fanatical about him, you can safely skip this one and plunge into ENTER THE DRAGON.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not all versions of the Bruce Lee films are the same
Review: Top notch Martial Arts Action. Don't let it bother you that this is his first big film, theres tons of time on screen with Bruce, and even in his quiet moments his presence is great. The US version on DVD is a great improvement from the VHS versions all of us have had to live with for years, but it you see the Chinese versions, you will find the movies to be better in every way. Thanks to Thomas Ong for his very good advice that made me aware of this (see Listmania) , also read Dragon Man X's reviews, his reviews are great. he goes into this same topic in depth. I have about three versions of this movie, and the US version cut out the scene where he goes to the brothel (needless US censorship- including a priceless few seconds of Bruce behind a Chair ready to go .. why would they cut that out. oh yeah, the brothel. they seem to frown on showing that stuff now. They sure didn't mind that stuff before 1990 ) We have so few films of Bruce that it's a crime to withhold any footage from us. Also cut out is the scene at the end (if you see the US version from fox, you can sense there is something missing) (Note that the scene with the saw in the icehouse is missing from all versions, I guess that is removed from all the versions). Also, the scale of the widescreen, while good in the US version is still cropped more than the Chinese Versions side to side and a bit from the top and bottom. And the sound is stereo in the Chinese versions! The subtitling is off in the US versions also. I compared the traslations, and the Chinese versions have what I believe to be the more accurate versions of the translations. this is true of all the US tranlations of the BL films, it's more fun and meaningful to read the actual translation.. in the US version , they had to voiceover and watch the actors as they mouthed the words so sometimes the meaning is completely different. And the Chinese versions have an actual photo of Bruce, not glazed over in red? who made that decision?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: INTENSE SHARP ACTION
Review: WHAT I LIKED BEST ABOUT THIS FILM, APART FROM THE HIGH CALIBER ACTION, IS AT THE FILMS CLIMAX, WHEN BRUCE LEE'S CHARACTOR IS GAZING INTO THE RIVER, AFTER ALL HIS FRIENDS HAVE BEEN MURDERED. HE CAN EITHER MOVE ON, OR STAY AND AVENGE THEM, EVEN THOUGH IT WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BRING ABOUT HIS OWN DEATH. BRUCE THROWS HIS BACK PACK, FILLED WITH ALL HIS EARTHLY POSSESSIONS,INDEED SYMBOLIZING HIS VERY EARTHLY EXISTENCE, INTO THE WATER, AND SO FACES HIS DESTINY WITH SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY, TO AVENGE THEIR DEATHS. HONOR IS PLACED BEFORE HIS OWN SAFETY AND COMFORT. THIS WAS BRUCE LEE IN REAL LIFE AS WELL.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lee's first movie.
Review: Whe this film was released here it's title was switched from THE BIG BOSS to FISTS OF FURY, and the movie FISTS OF FURY was re-named THE CHINESE CONNECTION. Got that! Lee plays a nice country guy who works at a ice factory run by a evil gangster called the big boss (Han Ying Chieh). The action scenes are well done and the dubbing is some of the worst.
Note: only buy the BRUCE LEE: THE MASTER COLLECTION dvd from Fox Home Video.

1972. Columbia. ??? MINS.

Rated R (Violence advisory).

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great Movie, Poor Quality DVD
Review: While this is a great film, this DVD edition has picture quality too poor to do it justice.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: ALWAYS stay with ORIGINAL
Review: Why American production make HK movies look so cheap? First of all, they cut off so much scene, second of all ruin it by making look acting so dumb by English Dubb. For ANY of HK movies, ALWAYS stick with ORIGINAL LICENSED HK RELEASE. Be careful with cheap imports, boots though.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bruce Lee's first feature
Review: _Fists of Fury_ is the American title of "The Big Boss," the 1971 film featuring Bruce Lee's first starring role. Lee's persona, onscreen charisma and legendary martial arts skills are all intact, but the film suffers for using them too infrequently. The viewer of this flick is sure to see some excellent fight scenes, but unfortunately it is a case of too little and too late. The plot is tawdry, the writing is poor, the pacing is slow, and the characters are flat. However, for its excellent action sequences and its picture of an emerging Lee proving his chops-- acting and otherwise-- it is recommended to martial arts film buffs and Lee fans. All others should avoid. Note: no region 1 dvd exists of this film with either the original foreign language audio track or the film's many infamous cut scenes. And despite the indication, there is also no trailer to be found on the Fox dvd.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bruce Lee's first feature
Review: _Fists of Fury_ is the American title of "The Big Boss," the 1971 film featuring Bruce Lee's first starring role. Lee's persona, onscreen charisma and legendary martial arts skills are all intact, but the film suffers for using them too infrequently. The viewer of this flick is sure to see some excellent fight scenes, but unfortunately it is a case of too little and too late. The plot is tawdry, the writing is poor, the pacing is slow, and the characters are flat. However, for its excellent action sequences and its picture of an emerging Lee proving his chops-- acting and otherwise-- it is recommended to martial arts film buffs and Lee fans. All others should avoid. Note: no region 1 dvd exists of this film with either the original foreign language audio track or the film's many infamous cut scenes. And despite the indication, there is also no trailer to be found on the Fox dvd.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates