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      Game of Death

      R 1979 1h 42m Adventure List
      46% 13 Reviews Tomatometer 63% 25,000+ Ratings Audience Score An actor (Bruce Lee) shot by gangsters fakes his death, has plastic surgery and seeks kung-fu revenge. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered May 21 Buy Now

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      Audience Reviews

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      Liam D Bruce Lee’s last movie has some moments of entertainment but the bad script and the laughable ways them filming around the tragic death of the star makes it the only dud in his filmography Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/28/24 Full Review DanTheMan 2 Game of Death is increasingly difficult to assign a rating to, on the one hand, it's a pretty routine action movie that happens to feature parts of an unfinished movie of the same name, while on the other extremely exploitative of Lee's death using footage from his actual funeral within the confines of this movie's plot. Director Robert Clouse seems almost against using any of Lee's previously shot footage. Instead, he limits most of Bruce's footage to the final act, which is only about 11 minutes in total and the occasional cut away to stock footage from Lee's previous movies married to a substandard revenge thriller. There's an attempt to hide the fact that the body doubles bear little resemblance to Bruce near the start of the movie but that quickly becomes less and less apparent as the movie goes on and by the end, you can see their faces plain as day. Oh and don't even get me started on Chris Kent's awful attempts to mimic Bruce's battle cries, I cringed so hard. Clouse seemed to be the wrong man to hire when it came to making this revised version of Game of Death, but he does deliver some great original action thanks in part to the choreography of Sammo Hun. It's just that the writing is on the whole abysmal married with some clumsy editing that often leaves many moments completely disorienting to the viewers. That being said, however, John Barry's music is sublime, it has that Bondian feel but is one of the best parts of the movie. I can't really recommend this version of Game of Death unless you are a die-hard completionist like myself, it's an all-around unfortunate and ill-conceived endeavour in an attempt to finish a legacy. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 08/04/23 Full Review Chris M But I wanna know how much of the movie did Bruce get done before he passed? Because watching this mess, I'm guessing not much. I was under the impression it was at least over half. But the actual footage from the movie is like maybe 10%, not counting the stock-footage from other movies. This movie came out for pure exploitation on the Bruce Lee craze that started after his death. As other wanna be Bruce Lees with similar names got movies. What became know as Bruceploitation. But this is the worse as they take advantage of the tiny bit he was able to film. What's more insulting is there's a sequel. It makes me sick. Hollywood hits a new low with this one. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 05/09/23 Full Review William J This is largely an unfinished film that only features Bruce Lee at the end when he is fighting the five fighters in the tower. Consequently, the only good part about this movie is the tower fight with Lee wearing the now famous yellow tracksuit and the yellow and black striped Onitsuka Tiger track shoes he wore with matching yellow nunchucks. The ending fight is worth watching but the beginning and middle can be passed over, especially since there is no resolution to the plot of why he is fighting in the first place. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/01/23 Full Review Matthew B Best of Movies/TV Series Collection Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/19/22 Full Review William L Kareem doesn't get enough credit for doing cool stuff like making kung fu movies with Bruce Lee. If any other member of the Showtime Lakers made these kind of appearances they would make it their whole personality. Looking at the ratings, it really seems that people let their love for Bruce Lee take precedence over the actual viewing experience when it comes to Game of Death, as if you're obligated to like the film out of a sense of respect and pity given Lee's untimely death during production. While there are a few scenes of fun ass-kicking featuring Lee himself, hinting at an enjoyable original plot (including scaling a pagoda facing increasingly difficult enemies), Game of Death is an extremely cobbled-together film featuring a completely rewritten and barely sensible story based around practical available footage. Most of the story leading up to the actual final fight montage is painfully manufactured, with bad acting and a Lee body double shrouded in shadow doling out exposition. With Lee unavailable, there is a bizarre proportion of the runtime dedicated to the villain heirarchy that essentially never pays off. It's a bad movie made from the scraps of a film that should have been great were it not for fate intervening. Dark and tragic that Lee's character is 'killed' with a pistol while shooting a movie scene when Lee's son would die in reality in virtually the same way. (1/5) Rated 1 out of 5 stars 06/18/22 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      Almar Haflidason BBC.com ...the standard of the choreography is excellent, and the final 20 minutes - which are almost all of Bruce fighting - are well worth holding out for. Rated: 3/5 Sep 26, 2001 Full Review James Kendrick Q Network Film Desk appropriates Lee's completed fight footage and awkwardly weds it to a hackneyed plot in order to squeeze whatever profits could still be wrung from his legacy Rated: 1.5/4 Mar 8, 2021 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com An all around unfortunate and ill-conceived endeavor, it's a Lee feature for completists only. Rated: 0.5/5 Aug 26, 2020 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy The majority of the rescued Lee footage comes at the end -- this part of the film is spectacular and almost makes up for the dreariness of everything that precedes it. Rated: 2/4 Aug 8, 2020 Full Review Ed Travis Cinapse Game Of Death would be an unconscionable tragedy if it weren't for those glorious moments when the true legend shines so brightly for one last fight. Aug 5, 2020 Full Review Heather Wixson Daily Dead If the game itself is haunted, which I'm supposing is plausible, there's nothing set up in Game of Death that would even insinuate that possibility, making for an experience that doesn't seem to make a lick of sense. Rated: 2/5 Mar 23, 2017 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis An actor (Bruce Lee) shot by gangsters fakes his death, has plastic surgery and seeks kung-fu revenge.
      Director
      Robert Clouse
      Screenwriter
      Robert Clouse
      Production Co
      Columbia
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Adventure
      Original Language
      Chinese
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 24, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 42m
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