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The Game of Death

Bruce lee's final movie with new footage

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Bruce Lee's Back (Courtesy of stock footage)

May 1, 2009

by Captain_Couth
posted in Welcome to the Grindhouse

Rating:

Game of Death was another film project that was a Warner Brothers and Golden Harvest joint production. Movie goers all around the world were still in shock from the sudden death of Bruce Lee. His last film Enter the Dragon was a worldwide success. After his death a plethora of knock-offs and wannabe Bruce Lees flooded the market place. Raymond Chow and company saw an untapped market for another film "starring" Bruce Lee. He heard of an unfinished film that Bruce was working on before he was dead. So he hired Robert Clouse to direct new footage so it could be worked into the existing one. Sammo Hung was hired to become the action director (he also appears as a prize fighter). Robert Clouse used two doubles for Bruce Lee (one of them was Yuen Biao) and a lot of stock footage was used whenever it could. The use of the footage was a very, very bad idea. Many of the seems were obviously cut-and-paste and made the film look very cheap and exploitive fare. This was going to be another movie with Hong Kong actors and American ones thrown into the mix. Gig Young, Dean Jagger and Collen Camp (when she was extremely hot) co-star as well as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and several of Bruce Lee's friends. Instead of fleshing out the movie that Bruce was working on before he died, the film makers noticed that there were already several different films that were already made that bore a similarity to the original Game of Death. The new movie centered around a murder mystery and a lot of fighting peppered with a lot of action direction work from Sammo Hung. The finished results were a mixed bag. The American cut of the film was not that great and is pretty mediocre. The Hong Kong version is a whole lot better with extra footage (It's also edited differently, has all the trademarks of a Sammo Hung film project instead of one by Robert Clouse). and more Hong Kong actors and plot. It must have been a success in Hong Kong because a sequel was made from even more unused footage and outtakes of Bruce Lee. This movie is actually better than this one because it doesn't take itself seriously, not as much recycled footage and the fight scenes are even better. If I were to watch this movie I would recommend finding the Hong Kong version. It's a lot better than the boring American release. Followed by the Tower of Death a.k.a. Game of Death 2.

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QUEENBFLIX May 01, 2009

It was a pretty sad effort. Putting Clouse in charge was not a good idea. I sometimes think he believes himself to be entirely responsible for the success of ENTER THE DRAGON. I actually liked the song in this movie, its sad and ironic.

Captain_Couth May 01, 2009

Tis' true, he rode Bruce Lee's coat tails for the rest of his life. On the set of Enter the Dragon he was more like a "supervising director".

QUEENBFLIX May 01, 2009

All he ever did after that was bad mouth Bruce saying things like he wouldn't let himself be hit. I guess he never saw WAY OF THE DRAGON.

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About the reviewer

Joseph Ulibas (Captain_Couth)
Ranked #37

I have been working on my web series Fine Feather Friends.

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About this movie

Wiki

Bruce lee's final movie with new footage. A sequel titled The Game of Death II was released featuring old and unused footage from earlier films.

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Details

Cast: Bruce Lee, Roy Chiao, Colleen Camp, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gig Young, Yuen Wah, Mel Novak, Robert Wall, Yuen Biao, Lam Ching-Ying, James Tien, Hugh O'Brian, Sammo Hung, Mars

Director: Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Robert Clouse

Genre: Action, Adventure

Release Date: March 23, 1978

MPAA Rating: R

Screen Writer: Bruce Lee, Robert Clouse

Runtime: 103 minutes

Studio: Golden Harvest, Warner Bros Pictures

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