Game of Death

1979 "Bruce Lee challenges the underworld to a Game of Death."
5.9| 1h41m| R| en
Details

A martial arts movie star must fake his death to find the people who are trying to kill him.

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Reviews

Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Aryana Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
RoboRabbit89 I will be honest, I have never seen a Bruce Lee film until 2017, with "Enter the Dragon" and I enjoyed that film. As for this one being his last, before his untimely death I have to say it's fun. It falls into the category of being so bad it's good. Hard-core fans don't take it too seriously, and if your like me, you shouldn't. There wasn't much footage to use from the archives, because of what was completed, all of it is in the pagoda; I don't know much about it, I'm not sure if there was even a script, I'm just aware that their are just script notes found. I felt the way director Robert Clouse (Enter The Dragon) did the film was still pretty good; because from what I have heard, he didn't like or at least, care that much for what had been shot five years before. Because according to the director, many movies already copied the same idea, before the film's release! So it's understandable that he wanted to do something different.For what's it's worth I really liked it, it's fun. Even though it's bad, but that's why I like it, because it's bad, and over the top. The main baddie Dr. Lang is differently over the top funny, his laugh is hilarious! I give it a 6/10. Bruce Lee's last film is just pure escapist fun. Give it a look.
hrkepler In 1972, Bruce Lee started to work on his next film 'Game of Death'. He had filmed over 30 minutes of fight scenes before he got an offer from Hollywood to star in 'Enter the Dragon'. Bruce Lee was about to continue the filming of 'Game of Death', but unfortunately he passed away. Five years later the filmstudio Golden Harvest hired director Robert Clouse to create a movie around the unused footage that Lee already finished. 1978 'Game of Death' is quite solid on the plotwise (although totally diferent from the Lee's originaal script) though occasionally inconsistent and filled with plot holes that clearly shows that the rest of the movie was just thrown together to show that epic final fight scene. Rest of the cast is formed by solid character actors, but none of the actors from original shooting (and disciples and friends of Lee) refused to appear this new versioon as they thought the new movie would be disrespectful towards Bruce Lee's memory. Yes, 'Game of Death' was just an opportunity to Cash in on Lee's name, and the film was balancing on the edge of extremely bad taste (using footage from Bruce Lee's real funeral).Tae-jeong Kim, Alan Chui Chung San and Yuen Bio (who himself is good actor and fantastic martial artist) were used as stand ins for Bruce Lee in the role of Billy Lo. The stand ins were filmed in the shadows or behind back and their faces were usually covered with large sunglasses, but the screen presence of real Bruce was missing. No one can replace his charisma and spark. But I can't say that the film wasn't entertaining at all - it had it's moments, especially Dean Jagger as sleazy main villain.I wouldn't reccomend this film, but if you are huge Bruce fan, then you might want to see how his 'final film' came out. But I'd rather watch the documentary 'Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey' instead.
Michael_Elliott Game of Death (1978) ** (out of 4)Billy Lo (Bruce Lee) is a popular action star who is being forced by a mob ruler to sign with them. He refuses and has several attempts on his life so he stages his on-set murder so that he can find out who is behind all of it and seek revenge.GAME OF DEATH is perhaps the most controversial kung fu movie ever released. In case you don't know, Lee started filming this movie in 1972 but put it on the back burner to go film ENTER THE DRAGON. Before he could finish GAME OF DEATH he died and the footage pretty much remained unreleased until the producer decided to try and build a movie around it. What you have is GAME OF DEATH being released in 1978 with the footage of Lee surrounded by actors filling in for him.I can certainly understand the hatred that some people have for this movie and I can understand why some don't consider it a real Bruce Lee movie. At the same time, there is actual footage of him used here and it's quite excellent so it's somewhat hard not to recommend the movie even if the producers were obviously trying to make a cash grab with what they did. There's no question that there are some embarrassing moments here that put this closer in the category of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE rather than THE CROW.The biggest problem with this film is that they simply don't have too much of a movie. There's maybe twenty-five or so minutes of Lee footage here and the rest is done by an actor who doesn't look anything like him and more times than not he's wearing glasses or even a beard. Trying to cover up the fact that this isn't Lee just makes the film look really cheap and it's so poorly done that you can't help but laugh at it. I'd also argue that all of the new footage just doesn't contain anything interesting in it. Heck, Chuck Norris gets a credit and appears less than a minute worth of running time.As far as what makes the film worth watching, it's certainly the footage of Lee, which takes up the ending here. This includes some terrific fight sequences and it's hard not to recommend the movie based on these scenes alone. Lee, decked out in that now legendary yellow outfit, does a great job during the fighting sequences and especially his big battle against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This entire sequence is wonderful to watch as are the other fights. How can a Lee fan not be thrilled by these scenes?GAME OF DEATH is exploitation at its highest power but the ending is just so great and so thrilling that the film is still worth watching.
alexanderdavies-99382 "Game of Death" was a film that Bruce Lee failed to complete on account of halting production so he could make "Enter the Dragon." After the tragic passing of the martial artist in 1973, his unfinished movie was eventually released in 1979. For the fans, it was to be a final glimpse of their idol after Bruce Lee had revolutionised both the Hong Kong film industry and Martial Arts in general. The travesty for the film that was made in the late 1970s, is in such poor taste. The reason for this, is on account of it being exploitive, it's an insult to Bruce Lee and everything he stood for. In addition - and I was stunned by this - actual footage of Lee's funeral was used for the film! Why Robert Clouse wanted to become involved is anyone's guess! He had gone from making the classic "Enter the Dragon," followed by "Black Belt Jones" and now this. The so-called plot is exploitation personified and bears no resemblance whatever to Lee's concept for his own version. The lookalikes for Bruce Lee aren't very good at all but at least they look as though they can fight quite well. A seasoned character actor like Dean Jagger should have turned this film down. Begrudgingly, there are a couple of fight scenes that are digestible but not much else to enjoy. Sammo Hung has a pretty good fight with Bob Wall. The confrontation in the locker room between one of the lookalikes and Wall is also OK. Then and almost out of nowhere, the man himself makes a late appearance in the film's plot and we suddenly whiz back in time to the latter half of 1972 when Bruce Lee was working on "Game of Death." His three fight scenes are excellent as always and this is the first time that a one on one nunchuku scene had been put on film. Lee is on screen for 11 minutes but it is by far the best footage by many miles. The footage looks a lot more cinematic and professional than Bruce Lee's previous three movies. It is a considerable loss that he couldn't complete the film. Briefly, the original idea was for Bruce Lee and a team of his fellow martial artists to discover what was inside this Pagoda, which had a martial artist guarding each floor of the building. Lee and his party were to have progressed by defeating each guard and reach the top floor. Bruce Lee began shooting his version in August of 1972 and halted production in October of the same year. His film would have dwarfed the one that was released in every way possible!