Game of Death
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Movie Reviews of Game of Death
Movie Review: HUG
Summary: 3 Stars
THIS MOVIE NEEDS A HUG.I WATCH THE MOVIE JUST FOR THE PART THAT BRUCE LEE IS REALLY IN IT.THE STORY IS NOT THE WAY.I GIVE THE MOVIE 3 STARS FOR THE PART THAT BRUCE LEE IS REALLY IN IT.Movie Review: Meh
Summary: 3 Stars
Not one of Bruce Lee's best. Mostly because its clearly not him throughout most of the movie.Movie Review: A travesty of a film, except the ending........
Summary: 2 Stars
While watching this movie again, I actually got quite angry. I thought of all the things wrong with this turd of a movie. I thought of the greedy movie producers who say a payday in the lost footage of Game Of Death. I thought of the horrid & cheesy way they made this movie. I thought of the way Raymond Chow was responsible for this crap even though he had worked with Bruce for many years. This movie is a insult to Bruce Lee, plain and simple. This should have NEVER been made. And then you get to the last 15-20 min......The ONLY, and I mean ONLY reason to watch (what I call) the worst movie I have EVER seen is for the last 15-20 min. It's there you get the footage of Bruce Lee fighting three enemies in the bogota that was later going to be part of the real Game Of Death. I will get to that in a bit. I would like to comment on how utterly crappy the rest of the film is.
The story goes something like this: Bruce was in the middle of filming Game Of Death when he got the green light on Enter The Dragon. He then halted production on Game Of Death and went to america to make the greatest martial arts film of all time. Upon returning to Hong Kong, he went to a "friend's" apartment and laid down to take a nap. He had a headache so this friend of his gave him some asperin. He never woke up. I won't go into all the conspiracies behind his death, but the point is, he died. Game of Death was then left unfinished. Fast foward SIX years....ugh.
It's 1979 and some producers get the idea to take the footage of Game Of Death that was shot and make a movie around it. What you have here is a double of Bruce playing most of the movie. It's got mostly american hollywood actors in it. It has an american director, Robert Klause (who I hope dies a painful death for directing this movie), and a terrible story. The worst part of the movie, however, is the cheesy way they intercut scenes from Bruce's other films to make it seem like he is in this movie. The double for Bruce rarely shows his full face. He hides behing huge sunglasses, even at night. They even have a scene where he gets shot in the face, has surgery, and comes out looking like a different double of Bruce!!! They even used footage of Bruce's real funeral in the movie. In the script, Bruce's fake character fakes his own death to get a crime syndicate off of his back. Instead of staging a fake funeral, like I said, they use REAL footage!! Another disgrace.
There is even a scene where the Bruce double is supposed to be looking into a mirror and they have put a cardboard cut-out of Bruce Lee's face over the double's image in the frame. I have never in my life seen something look so fake and ridiculous in a movie. Especially one that was supposed to be some big budget movie of 1979. The story is utter crap. The acting is actually the best of all of his films (except for Enter The Dragon), but the actors don't fit into this kind of movie. They are all established american actors, who don't belong in a Hong Kong kung fu film.
I could go on and on about how bad this movie is. It's a insult to Bruce Lee, plain and simple. I liken this to going to his grave, urinating on it, and then leaving. He deserved much better than this and it's a shame that Hollywood continued to treat him like this, even after his death.
Now, after all of that.....why would I even give this DVD two stars? Well, because of the footage that actually has Bruce in it. These are the best fight scenes he ever filmed. There is one the best nunchuku battles (with Dan Inosanto) to ever be filmed. He battles Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the last stage of the bogota. It's a fun battle to watch, due the height difference between the two. I am sure many of you have seen these lost scenes, so you know what I mean. It's the only reason to watch this movie. In fact, do yourself a favor and skip to these fights by using your chapter selection feature. You will be happy I saved you that extra 1:15 hrs. of your life.
Like the other DVD's of this boxed set, this disc has no special features.
Movie Review: it is a double bruce lee ! the fans were in uproar
Summary: 2 Stars
Before Bruce Lee died he worked on scripts for Game of Death (also known under some titles as "song of the knife")...and shot some 40 odd minutes of footage including test screenings and actual fight sequences.
The idea of the film was to make a multi-layer, philosophical film made for the chinese and eastern audience to ask the question over martial arts style - the advantages and disadvantages of each style, as well as questioning the need for style anyway.
The film's main plot was to be based in Korea. Bruce Lee would be forced into storming a 4 or 5 storey Pagoda which is said to hold a infinite treasure with each level guarded by a different style.
The bottom floor would be held by hundreds of Karate students (much like the ending of Enter the Dragon), the first layer would be a style under the handle of "Gate of Enlightment".
The Second layer would be the Preying Mantis with elements of Wing Chun.
The Third layer would be a Philophino style whilst the Fourth, the Temple of Gold would be held by a Hapikdo expert (though I'm not sure about this).
The Fourth layer would be the Temple of the Unknown, guarded by one Kareem Abdul Jabbar - doing an unknown style.
Whilst shooting, most of the footage was lost to the ravages of time. And when Bruce Lee died, his fans cried out for any footage to be shown as a mark of respect.
The end footage of Bruce Lee fighting Jabbar and previous footage would be cut to bits by Robert Clouse and put into a new film under the same name. The end film is offensive and shatters the whole idea of the original GOD plot and story - but then again there wasn't enough info on the film to start with.
Bruce Lee fans were in uproar...the film was a shambles, yet was commerically succesful. Most of the film had no Bruce Lee in it, or had lookalikes or even worse used Stock Footage of old Bruce Lee films and interspliced it into the film.
The DVD, whilst is good, doesn't do much to help the film - there isn't enough info on the script notes...why is there so much text, why didn't they try to recreate the scenes, the floors or even re-do the film as new?
You'd be better off not to buy either the DVD or video version unless you want to waste money or actually are a die-hard bruce lee fan.
Movie Review: laughable
Summary: 2 Stars
As a long time Bruce Lee fan I found "Game of Death" to be a disgrace. Bruce Lee died tragically during the production of the film and for some reason the film company decided to finish it and release it with out him. A very bad decision, because the finished product is one of the most broken and comically bad kung Fu films ever made. It's not that I'm angry that they decided to finish the film with out Bruce, but if you're going to finish a film make sure that your star is in at least half of the footage. Instead Bruce Lee is in about 10% and the rest is his body double with a Bruce Lee head pasted on his shoulder. He'll be fighting and the head will remain motionless and expresstionless, it's like a gag video from youtube. On the other hand, the 10% that Bruce is in(Not his evil pasted head clone)is classic. No one can forget his fight with Kareem and it's truly one of the most memorable fights in Kung Fu film history. The rest of the film is a painful bore. I find out fast that this wasn't really a Bruce Lee film at all. Just a poorly fabricated movie built around 15 minutes of Lee footage that only comes in at the end.I felt really cheated after watching it. For Bruce Lee fanatics only. If you're looking for a good Kung Fu flick or just a good flick in general then "Game of Death" is not for you.