Game of Death (1979)

In the annals of cinematic rip-offs, few have been as sad or as ill-advised as this. The real shame is that, taken as is, it's really not that bad a film. But it's an attempt to make money off -- ahem, I mean honor the memory of Bruce Lee, who died after filming a small portion of this. So, for a while, it merely looks like one of the hundreds of bad Hong Kong knockoffs that traded on Lee's name, with a stand-in who doesn't look like Lee in the slightest but does a credible imitation of his fighting style and shows his face as little as possible. The problem is that there was some real footage of Lee hanging around (including his famous fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is way more believable as a martial arts expert than you would ever expect). And this footage was put in the film. And yes, the footage is astounding -- but if this was the only reason to make the film, then why bother making it at all? The rest of the film is essentially wasting time until we get to the precious little last bits of Lee's career. It's a film made with good intentions and general competency, yes, but it's still also nothing more than an excuse to squeeze a few more dollars from Lee's fans. It's an ugly, ungainly Frankenstein monster of a film, and like the good doctor's monster it makes me feel very sad.

Grade: C+