I think every Bruce Lee fan will automatically think disgrace when one brings up Game of Death, but honestly, it's not that bad.
I actually love this movie. Yeah, I know using stock footage of the guy to complete the film isn't the best idea, but they had nothing else to work with. They used it to make it look like he was actually there, which is fine, but sometimes, the stock footage reveals that Lee isn't really there. Examples are the post-credits scene, where they just use the scene from Way of the Dragon where Lee's character beats up Chuck Norris' character, Colt; and the scene where Billy gets shot, in which they use the ending of Fist of Fury. I think most people will think those clips belong in different movies.
This film has awesome fight scenes, with my favorite being the scene where Billy beats up Stick in the rain. The triumphant music, awesome fight moves, and the rain setting make it a pretty good fight. I like the choreography of this movie. There's lots of kicks, punches, and flips to satisfy you. But the one fight scene that lacks is the locker room fight. I think it's a bit cartoony (case in point: The part where Billy repeatedly kicks Killer Miller.) Another fight scene that's a bit lacking is the fight with Steiner, because there's this one scene in particular where "Steiner" kicks Billy, but the leg belongs to Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
I think the guys behind this movie knew that they couldn't use stock footage of Lee all throughout the movie to make him look like he's present, so they used a double and put him in shades, which look like the same shades the real Bruce Lee wore. Clever.
But I can agree with most Bruce Lee fans that the scene with Billy's funeral is real disgraceful. They use actual footage of Bruce Lee's funeral. And there's actually a part in this scene where they show a clip of the actual dead Bruce Lee. What a disgrace. But at least later in the movie, where the bad guys dig up his grave, you just see a fake head, rather than showing us a picture of a dead Bruce Lee.
Anyways, this review felt all over the place. I recommend that you see this movie. It has great action scenes, excellent music, good villains, and they use the footage that Lee shot for his version of Game of Death quite well. An example is the scene where Billy's friend, Jim is telling him a story at the restaurant about something the bad guys did to someone, where they use footage from the original Game of Death, which features a character from that version getting strangled to death by Kareem. It's cool that they used that scene there since that character wasn't written into this version.
I actually love this movie. Yeah, I know using stock footage of the guy to complete the film isn't the best idea, but they had nothing else to work with. They used it to make it look like he was actually there, which is fine, but sometimes, the stock footage reveals that Lee isn't really there. Examples are the post-credits scene, where they just use the scene from Way of the Dragon where Lee's character beats up Chuck Norris' character, Colt; and the scene where Billy gets shot, in which they use the ending of Fist of Fury. I think most people will think those clips belong in different movies.
This film has awesome fight scenes, with my favorite being the scene where Billy beats up Stick in the rain. The triumphant music, awesome fight moves, and the rain setting make it a pretty good fight. I like the choreography of this movie. There's lots of kicks, punches, and flips to satisfy you. But the one fight scene that lacks is the locker room fight. I think it's a bit cartoony (case in point: The part where Billy repeatedly kicks Killer Miller.) Another fight scene that's a bit lacking is the fight with Steiner, because there's this one scene in particular where "Steiner" kicks Billy, but the leg belongs to Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
I think the guys behind this movie knew that they couldn't use stock footage of Lee all throughout the movie to make him look like he's present, so they used a double and put him in shades, which look like the same shades the real Bruce Lee wore. Clever.
But I can agree with most Bruce Lee fans that the scene with Billy's funeral is real disgraceful. They use actual footage of Bruce Lee's funeral. And there's actually a part in this scene where they show a clip of the actual dead Bruce Lee. What a disgrace. But at least later in the movie, where the bad guys dig up his grave, you just see a fake head, rather than showing us a picture of a dead Bruce Lee.
Anyways, this review felt all over the place. I recommend that you see this movie. It has great action scenes, excellent music, good villains, and they use the footage that Lee shot for his version of Game of Death quite well. An example is the scene where Billy's friend, Jim is telling him a story at the restaurant about something the bad guys did to someone, where they use footage from the original Game of Death, which features a character from that version getting strangled to death by Kareem. It's cool that they used that scene there since that character wasn't written into this version.