In his final project, kung fu icon Bruce Lee stars as Billy Lo, a martial arts movie star who is targeted by a "syndicate" that likes to lay claim to entertainers such as him. Of course, they want more than just a piece of the action. When an attempt is made on his life on a film set, he decides to "play dead" (a morbid twist, given Lees' fate) in order to pull the wool over the eyes of the gangsters, and rescue his girlfriend Ann (a very appealing and sexy Colleen Camp), a successful singer.
For a movie that will always be viewed by some as an exploitative hack-job, "Game of Death" is entertaining enough to keep the audience watching. Production on this had started back in 1972, but only limited footage of Lee had been produced. Several years later, Robert Clouse, who had directed Lee in his most well-known film, "Enter the Dragon", reunited the surviving cast members and used doubles (Tae-jeong Kim and Biao Yuen) to fashion new scenes for the Billy character. This works moderately well, except for one glaring instance near the beginning where Lees' head is obviously superimposed over somebody else.
"Game of Death" benefits from a rich cast of familiar faces - Gig Young as Billy and Anns' newspaperman friend, Dean Jagger and Hugh O'Brian as mobsters, Mel Novak, Danny Inosanto, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (!) as henchmen, Chuck Norris as a fighter, Roy Chiao as Billy's uncle, etc. Old pros Young, O'Brian, and especially Jagger come off pretty well, and Camp offers a bright presence as the girlfriend. Lee, as always, is cool and charismatic, what little we see of him.
As could be expected, it really comes to life in various fight and action scenes. The final 20 or so minutes, when Billy works his way up the floors of a warehouse and combats one henchman after another, is an impressive highlight; even the fight with Kareem is pretty effective.
In some ways, this *can* be seen as a tasteless effort to trade on Lees' brand name (real footage of his funeral is utilized), and martial arts enthusiasts may be disappointed. Among those who refused to participate were Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Muhammad Ali, who each dismissed the project as exploitative and were underwhelmed by the paychecks offered. But more casual fans of this kind of thing may find it an okay view, if not a particularly good film.
In an extremely sad note, the maiming of Billy on the film set is all too reminiscent of what would happen to Bruces' son Brandon approximately 20 years later when the latter starred in "The Crow".
Seven out of 10.
For a movie that will always be viewed by some as an exploitative hack-job, "Game of Death" is entertaining enough to keep the audience watching. Production on this had started back in 1972, but only limited footage of Lee had been produced. Several years later, Robert Clouse, who had directed Lee in his most well-known film, "Enter the Dragon", reunited the surviving cast members and used doubles (Tae-jeong Kim and Biao Yuen) to fashion new scenes for the Billy character. This works moderately well, except for one glaring instance near the beginning where Lees' head is obviously superimposed over somebody else.
"Game of Death" benefits from a rich cast of familiar faces - Gig Young as Billy and Anns' newspaperman friend, Dean Jagger and Hugh O'Brian as mobsters, Mel Novak, Danny Inosanto, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (!) as henchmen, Chuck Norris as a fighter, Roy Chiao as Billy's uncle, etc. Old pros Young, O'Brian, and especially Jagger come off pretty well, and Camp offers a bright presence as the girlfriend. Lee, as always, is cool and charismatic, what little we see of him.
As could be expected, it really comes to life in various fight and action scenes. The final 20 or so minutes, when Billy works his way up the floors of a warehouse and combats one henchman after another, is an impressive highlight; even the fight with Kareem is pretty effective.
In some ways, this *can* be seen as a tasteless effort to trade on Lees' brand name (real footage of his funeral is utilized), and martial arts enthusiasts may be disappointed. Among those who refused to participate were Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Muhammad Ali, who each dismissed the project as exploitative and were underwhelmed by the paychecks offered. But more casual fans of this kind of thing may find it an okay view, if not a particularly good film.
In an extremely sad note, the maiming of Billy on the film set is all too reminiscent of what would happen to Bruces' son Brandon approximately 20 years later when the latter starred in "The Crow".
Seven out of 10.