the audience applauded

Lack of good storyline.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

In his final project, kung fu icon Bruce Lee stars as Billy Lo, a martial arts movie star who is targeted by a "syndicate" that likes to lay claim to entertainers such as him. Of course, they want more than just a piece of the action. When an attempt is made on his life on a film set, he decides to "play dead" (a morbid twist, given Lees' fate) in order to pull the wool over the eyes of the gangsters, and rescue his girlfriend Ann (a very appealing and sexy Colleen Camp), a successful singer.For a movie that will always be viewed by some as an exploitative hack-job, "Game of Death" is entertaining enough to keep the audience watching. Production on this had started back in 1972, but only limited footage of Lee had been produced. Several years later, Robert Clouse, who had directed Lee in his most well-known film, "Enter the Dragon", reunited the surviving cast members and used doubles (Tae-jeong Kim and Biao Yuen) to fashion new scenes for the Billy character. This works moderately well, except for one glaring instance near the beginning where Lees' head is obviously superimposed over somebody else."Game of Death" benefits from a rich cast of familiar faces - Gig Young as Billy and Anns' newspaperman friend, Dean Jagger and Hugh O'Brian as mobsters, Mel Novak, Danny Inosanto, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (!) as henchmen, Chuck Norris as a fighter, Roy Chiao as Billy's uncle, etc. Old pros Young, O'Brian, and especially Jagger come off pretty well, and Camp offers a bright presence as the girlfriend. Lee, as always, is cool and charismatic, what little we see of him.As could be expected, it really comes to life in various fight and action scenes. The final 20 or so minutes, when Billy works his way up the floors of a warehouse and combats one henchman after another, is an impressive highlight; even the fight with Kareem is pretty effective.In some ways, this *can* be seen as a tasteless effort to trade on Lees' brand name (real footage of his funeral is utilized), and martial arts enthusiasts may be disappointed. Among those who refused to participate were Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Muhammad Ali, who each dismissed the project as exploitative and were underwhelmed by the paychecks offered. But more casual fans of this kind of thing may find it an okay view, if not a particularly good film.In an extremely sad note, the maiming of Billy on the film set is all too reminiscent of what would happen to Bruces' son Brandon approximately 20 years later when the latter starred in "The Crow".Seven out of 10.

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.

I really enjoyed Game Of Death. I really love the scenes that Bruce Lee shot for this movie. You have to give credit for the makers trying they best finishing this movie, it wasn't easy as they had build a story around 40 minutes roughly of fight footage that Bruce Lee was included and many other stars from previous movies. The directors obviously didn't make the movie Bruce Lee would wanted it. But they gave it a interesting plot which I really enjoyed watching. Its completely different from the original plot, but still enjoyable. Make sure you see the original footage Bruce Lee shot which is extended from the 1978 version of the movie. You can find it on YouTube or an documentary Warriors Journey which also contain outtakes.

Let's face it - no one can finish Game of Death in the same way Bruce Lee would've done it. One would think that if anyone could've come the closest to his vision it had to be Robert Clouse, the director of "Enter The Dragon". Sadly if you've seen his version of it, you'll notice that his contribution is, lightly put, a disaster. Its shameless attempts at camouflaging the fact that Bruce Lee wasn't already part of it are commonly known: The infamous Cardboard-cutout, the doubles that don't look at all like Bruce, the shades, the beards, the recycled footage from past films, hilarious editing and the list goes on. Everyone knows it and everyone laughs at it.The only saving grace is the footage Bruce had already filmed. These are truly great fights, but they are way overshadowed by the poor quality of the rest of the movie. You never get the feeling like you are watching one whole movie, rather than a mess of two movies.The first half hour is though to sit-through and I was almost overwhelmed with boredom. It desperately lacks Bruces' charisma and his sense of direction and it goes to show that he was the true mastermind behind "Enter the Dragon". The original footage was also terribly dubbed, at least in the version I saw. Even for someone who is used to bad dubbing of HK movies, this one was exceptionally annoying and off.The good thing is that you can find the Bruces' original, unedited footage online or on DVD, and it's best watched that way, with minimal editing from third parties and without some other directors involvement. There's roughly 40 minutes of it and it has scenes that didn't make it into Robert Clouses version. Now this is the good stuff one expects from a Bruce Lee film. I imagine this could've been his best movie to its date, even better than "Enter The Dragon". Its fights are awesome, full of memorable ideas and they are brimming with Bruces' charisma and intensity. Clouses Version gets a 3 out of 10 only because of the so-bad-it's-good factor. If you want some genuine Bruce Lee action; go for the unedited footage. Even at its unfinished state it's light-years ahead of this one.