Game of Death

Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC MOVIE THAT OFFERS A FINAL GLIMPSE OF A TRUE MASTER
Review: IN THE LAST MOVIE OF BRUCE LEE'S LIFE, A RISING MARTIAL ARTS STAR NAMED BILLY LO GETS HARASSED BY THE MAFIA. BUT, WHEN THEY VICIOUSLY SHOOT HIM, HE FAKES HIS DEATH AND GOES ON A MISSION FOR REVENGE. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE REAL BRUCE LEE DIED HALFWAY THROUGH THE MAKING OF THIS FILM. BUT SIX YEARS LATER, ROBERT CLOUSE GATHERED UP ALL THE SURVIVING CAST MEMBERS AND WITH THE USE OF DOUBLES FILLING IN FOR LEE, THIS MOVIE WAS COMPLETED. A VERY GOOD MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE WITH SOME LEGENDARY FIGHTS. THE FIGHT BETWEEN BRUCE LEE AND KAREEM ABDUL JABAR IS A MUST SEE. FOOTAGE FROM BRUCE LEE'S ACTUAL FUNERAL WAS USED FOR ONE SCENE IN THIS MOVIE. NONETHLESS, BRUCE LEE FANS SHOULD ENJOY THIS FINAL LOOK AT A TRUE MASTER OF THE MARTIAL ARTS.

Rating:
Summary: Other Lee Movies Are Better
Review: I cannot say anything BAD about Bruce Lee's movies. I am biased becaused I am a BIG FAN. But with all his movies this one has to come last. Just because most of it isn't the DRAGON himself. They put in a double who did a pretty good job imitating the "moves". Props to him, definitely. But there is only ONE BRUCE LEE. It's still worth owning (I know I do), because of the legendary fight scenes that are in it. The pure-ness of his "no-style" style. If you decide to buy this...then you HAVE TO buy Return of the Dragon and Enter The Dragon to say the least. Chinese Connection and Fists of Fury also go on the list. Respect the Legend. Respect the Dragon. Peace to you and Good Health.

One Love.

Rating:
Summary: Very corny, but groundbreaking at the same time
Review: For many Bruce Lee purists, there's a strong feeling that this movie should never have been made and with many stars who die before their last work is finished, it's usually a no-brainer to have that unfinished work left on the cutting room floor. With Bruce, it's different. There were just some terrific fight scenes that would've been a great shame not to see them brought to light in some form. Sure, the script and basically everything else in the movie was shoddy filmmaking, but I don't believe that money was the motivating factor in making this movie. Recent discoveries have revealed that additional footage was found revealing Bruce's original plot and vision for the movie that is way different from the movie we're stuck with. Sadly, we'll never see that story brought to life, but in today's digital age you can never say never.

The groundbreaking aspect of the film is that this is one of the first attempts that I know of at trying to complete a film with a deceased actor. The methods are laughable by today's standards, but a gutsy move on the producers part. These days with digital technology, Hollywood has been able to ressurect actors back for a few scenes in recent films such as "The Crow" with Brandon Lee and "Gladiator" with Oliver Reed. From a critics standpoint, Game of Death was a disaster, but in truth it's a well meaning attempt for fans to pay one last tribute to King of Kung Fu.

Rating:
Summary: I have no Title.
Review: The spectacular fight scenes with the real Bruce Lee in Game of Death is the only thing worth mentioning about this movie and the only scenes worthy of 5 stars. As for the rest of the movie, Warner Bros did one hell of a job finding every exact duplicate from Bruce Lee to Dan inosanto. All in all, the movie stinks. I recommend anyone out there not to buy this film but i do recommend you look into "Bruce Lee: In G.O.D." which you can find on ebay. The DVD shows all of his last fight scenes from Game of Death - its worth it. Theres only one "WAY" and thats the Bruce Lee "WAY"

Rating:
Summary: The last film Bruce Lee made before his tragic death
Review: Bruce Lee (AKA: Lee Jun Fan), is one of film history's most talented action stars of all time, and it shows on every movie he made ! He was respected by a whole lot of people from the US and in Hong Kong during his existence in the early '70s. He has made four smash hit martial arts movies like "Fists of Fury", "The Chinese Connection", "Return of the Dragon", and "Enter The Dragon". All of these films shot Lee to stardom. And finally, it comes down to Lee's fifth and final movie "Game of Death". This movie was originally filmed, months after "Enter The Dragon". Unfortunately, after he died of cerebral edema in July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee only completed a third of the film. The film remained incomplete for five years. Finally in 1978, Raymond Chow and Robert Clouse finished the film and threw in the scenes Lee was in before his death, and some additional with a Bruce Lee lookalike, Tang Lung. This movie turned out okay, but unfotunately for my taste, it was a little dull, since a third of the film didn't include the REAL Bruce Lee. It's very simple to realize that when Lee is fighting sloppily, everyone knows it's just the lookalike, Tang Lung himself, but at least he looks like Lee in almost every way. Besides, if it weren't for Tang Lung, "Game of Death" would've remained incomplete for 25 years, and I give him credit for that. Everybody else should ! Another drawback of the movie is the voice acting on some characters. One of the fighters sounded like an answering machine voice with an Asian accent. I laughed a bit, but all in all, I thought it was ridiculous ! Granted, I really liked the action sequecnes, especially the big fight between Bruce Lee and former Basketball sensation, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. However, some of the fight scenes turned out a little plain, when Tang Lung tags along as the Lee lookalike, but his fighting skills are fairly interesting, but not as good as the real thing, and you know who I'm talking about ! All in all, this turned out to be a unique martial arts classic like all of Bruce Lee's films, but not what I have come to expect ! The flaws of the film were too noticeable and the fact that Bruce Lee was replaced by his double, Tang Lung, is way too noticeable. That's what I didn't like about the film. But still, I enjoyed it a lot ! If you wanna spice up your DVD collection with Lee's films, you have to get this one !

Rating:
Summary: Not Offensive But A True Tribute To The Dragon!
Review: To all the haters out there, this movie ain't no disgrace or offense to Bruce Lee! Just because he couldn't finish this film does not mean that his close producer and friend Raymond Chow could have not finished it! I think Chow did a spectacular job re-inventing Bruce's supposed to be fourth and best movie! He even included stunt man Yuen Biao, a graduate of the same Martial Arts and Opera School as Jackie Chan, to fill in for Lee! He even brought a whole cast full of American known actors! Like what the heck do people want! To tell you the truth it would be even more depressing if Chow only released the twelve minute footage of Lee in the pagoda scenes! Think about it! At least you can see memorable clips from Lee and also the classic Pagoda scenes featuring Dan Inosanto and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! Get real people and give this one a shot because this movie is much better than most other Chinese movies released! R.I.P. Bruce Lee!

Rating:
Summary: Trust me, skip this one
Review: I first became intersted in this film because I was watching the original Bruce Lee fight scenes from this film on the American Movie Classics channel. I was mesmerized by the action sequences and vowed to own the DVD because from what I saw, the story line was awesome and the action sequences were the best I had ever seen! Unfortuately, I'm not a huge Bruce Lee buff, so I didn't know which movie I was watching at the time.

After I did a search for Lee and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, I happened upon this film: Game of Death. Since this movie boasted to be the only movie to show Kareem and Lee's only fight sequence, I figured this must be the movie I had been viewing on AMC. However, unbeknownst to me, AMC was showing A Warriors Journey, which had all the footage from this film, including additional footage that was edited out in the 1979 release of Game of Death (such as scenes where Lee and Kareem Abdul Jabbar talk during their fight and scenes of Lee's two buddies fighting the bosses and getting the crap kicked out of them until Lee steps up to regulate). In this movie, Lee's two buddies are gone and Kareem's fight sequence is quick and painless, along with other notable edits that made the movie that much more painful to digest.

As if the disappointment of not seeing all the scenes I had been engrossed in on AMC wasn't horrible enough, the story to this movie [is not good]. It's just a bunch of garbage thrown together to try and get a profit off never before released fight scenes using a cookie-cutter storyline that's been done a billion times before. The story is too confusing to even go into detail over, due to trying to make the movie last 90 minutes and still relay the story into Lee's final fight scenes, but I'll mention these elements: mafia, kidnapping a girlfriend, and extortion. (Ironically, the mafia isn't even Chinese, but American, even though the movie is set in China! They should have just set the movie in San Francisco or something! ARRGGHH!) I hope you see what I mean when I say "a bunch of garbage thrown together".

If you're familiar with dumb 1970s movies that never should have been made, you're probably familiar with this one and just don't know it. If you're not familiar with some of the horrible movies to come out of the '70s, please trust me when I say to skip this one ...

Rating:
Summary: This DVD stinks
Review: This DVD ... majorly. May be it's my disc, but not all the features are on the disc. Where's the theatrical trailer. The package says it has a theatrical trailer, but the disc doesn't. ... I'm returning this ... DVD and will buy it when the features written on the case/package is on the disc.
9/16 Replacemnt DVD had no theatrical trailer. So my recommendation still holds.

Rating:
Summary: Offensive....Or A Tribute?
Review: Most Bruce Lee fans HATE this movie. They (or I should say "we", since I'm a Bruce Lee fan) note the use of very transparent doubling by Kim Tai Chung & others, the drastic change of plot from Lee's original story-line, & the use of footage from Lee's actual funeral in the film.

I understand why these fans dislike "Game of Death" so much & I respect their beliefs. However, I think these fans are reacting a bit too strongly.

There are some good points to this movie:

1. The high production values. Remember, this is 1978. Hong-Kong movies from THIS time period weren't what they are today. Jackie Chan was just starting to find his way with "Snake In The Eagle's Shadow" & with the exception of the Shaw Brothers, most Hong-Kong films from this time period were cheap, exploitation flicks. We're still a few years away from John Woo, Tsui Hark, or Ang Lee.

2. The John Barry musical score. Remember him? He's the one behind "The James Bond Theme."

3. The opening title credits by John Christopher Strong the Third. The floating games of chance, combined with John Barry's musical score give the film a "classy" action-movie feel, like a Bond film, quality-wise, that is.

4. The major American stars Dean Jagger, Hugh O'Brien, Gig Young, & Colleen Camp. Okay, this is supposed to be Hong-Kong & one reviewer pointed out that in real-life, the heads of Hong-Kong's papers & crime-syndicates would be Chinese. But again, this is 1978. Lee did want to break out onto the mainstream by working with major "American" actors. (Lee himself, of course was an American, since Lee was born in San Francisco, but raised in Hong-Kong.) "Enter The Dragon", while being an obvious James Bond swipe, was successful, not only because of Lee's great talent & charisma, but also because that film featured American stars at the time. (If you can consider John Saxon a "star", that is.)

5. The locker-room fight. No, that's not Bruce Lee fighting Bob Wall, it's doubles Kim Tai Chung & Chen Yao Po. But it still is impressive & for this scene, at least, the cutting in of clips from "Way of The Dragon" (or "Return of The Dragon") actually works.

6. The plot. Okay, some people don't like the story, but it's obviouse that writer Jan Spears based the story on the rumors surrounding Lee's death. (In truth, he died of an allergic reaction to the pain-pill Equagesic, causing his brain to swell with an edema. However, there were rumors, and that's all they were, just rumors, that he was killed by the Triads for refusing to give them a piece of his successful film-company.) The character of "Billy Lo", faking his death after an attempted murder, so that he can do battle with the syndicate, is based on the Bruce Lee MYTH. (Kind of like the way the 1957 Elvis vehicle "Loving You" is based on the Elvis Presley myth.)

I'm not arguing with the fans who hate this movie. They are fans of a true innovative genius of the martial-arts & so I can't say that they are wrong. However, the REAL script & missing additional footage from Lee's original "Game of Death" wasn't uncovered until the mid-1990's. I'm not saying Raymond Chow & Robert Clouse weren't thinking of money when they "finished" "Game of Death." (After all, the film industry is a business.) But I don't see an exploitation picture when I watch "Game of Death." Instead, I see a well-intentioned (if somewhat misguided) tribute to the genius of Bruce Lee.

P.S. To see what Bruce Lee intended for his original version of "Game of Death", watch "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey." This documentary has a detailed rendering of Lee's script outline, as well as over 30 minutes of completed footage for the film's finale.

Rating:
Summary: not a proper bruce lee film
Review: Where does one begin in retailing the atrocity of _Game of Death_? To say it is a terrible film is understating the case. If director Clouse and producer Chow wanted to do right by Bruce Lee's memory, the small amount of footage shot for the film by Lee would have been released "as is." The decision to complete the film is not justified when your star not only did not shoot more than 40% of the scenes required but is also five years dead.

The film as released is deplorable. Lee is doubled by an actor who wears dark sunglasses at all times and speaks as if about to keel over from too much thorazine. When the double is not present and when we are not seeing actual scenes by Bruce Lee, we see reverse shots of Bruce that do not match at all during the film's dialogue. What is worse, there are actually computerized cut-outs of Bruce's face pasted over the body double on occasion. Perhaps an even more astonishing lapse of judgement is the use of shots of Bruce Lee's actual funeral when the character in the film fakes his death. Who are we kidding here? This is not a work of art, it is [an] imitation which borders on exploitation of Lee's legacy. The plot manages to be even less coherent then Lee's Hong Kong films. The camera angles are baffling, even bizarre. The acting is weak. Colleen Camp is the only person who seems to not drain the viewer's soul away when onscreen, but it will be apparent that her moving on to the _Police Academy_ movies is actually a step up from this tripe.

The only flailing remnants of Lee's input on this project is his concept of a hierarchy of martial arts masters manning levels of a tower, and the fight scene with former student Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (whose appearance in _Airplane!_ is like Camp's a step up from the blandness here). I advise the viewer to stick with the other films Lee made, where he had more of a hand in the finished product.