Although this is best viewed as a curiosity piece, it still manages to pack in some fun martial arts fights during the running time - most of which take place within the last twenty minutes. Up until then, the "entertainment" comes from watching a poor double of Lee trying to hide his face from the camera in any way possible (wearing hats, helmets, huge dark sunglasses, and a fake beard), scenes which are occasionally interspersed with poor stock footage and clips of Lee from other movies to make it look as it he is in the film...at one point his face being pasted onto another actor!
Inevitably, due to the fact that Lee was dead before this film was made and that they had to base the story around 11 minutes of fights he had previously filmed, it's a muddled and disjointed affair, but considering what they were up against, I think the editing guys did a fairly good job with this. The best that they could have, at least. Robert Clouse (who had already made his mark with ENTER THE DRAGON) isn't a particularly good director, but he keeps the action flowing smoothly and ensues that things never get boring.
Kicking off with some neat self-referencing (Lee fights a young Chuck Norris, in a scene actually filmed for an earlier movie of his yet ripped off here), we are immediately introduced to a diverse group of multi-cultural bad guys for Lee to fight. Yes, the plot is simplistic in the extreme and consists of mostly action-orientated scenes, but it's a solid basis for what is basically a martial arts movie like this. The actors and actresses drafted in to make sense of the plot are totally wasted - Colleen Camp appears and disappears as Lee's on/off girlfriend - yet the fact that they have never actually acted with Lee is quite well hidden.
For the first hour, things are pretty average, including the martial arts scenes. The viewer sits arounds waiting until Bruce Lee himself shows up, battling a couple of experts before fighting the basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar (the difference in their sizes is incredible), which is a superb fight scene and the best part of the movie. After this, Lee reverts back to a double for the ending. Fans with a morbid interest in Lee's death will be interested to see a brief-but-real shot of his corpse in the film - he had a public funeral with an open coffin, and you might have guessed that somebody with a camera would happen to be there at just the right time.
Inevitably, due to the fact that Lee was dead before this film was made and that they had to base the story around 11 minutes of fights he had previously filmed, it's a muddled and disjointed affair, but considering what they were up against, I think the editing guys did a fairly good job with this. The best that they could have, at least. Robert Clouse (who had already made his mark with ENTER THE DRAGON) isn't a particularly good director, but he keeps the action flowing smoothly and ensues that things never get boring.
Kicking off with some neat self-referencing (Lee fights a young Chuck Norris, in a scene actually filmed for an earlier movie of his yet ripped off here), we are immediately introduced to a diverse group of multi-cultural bad guys for Lee to fight. Yes, the plot is simplistic in the extreme and consists of mostly action-orientated scenes, but it's a solid basis for what is basically a martial arts movie like this. The actors and actresses drafted in to make sense of the plot are totally wasted - Colleen Camp appears and disappears as Lee's on/off girlfriend - yet the fact that they have never actually acted with Lee is quite well hidden.
For the first hour, things are pretty average, including the martial arts scenes. The viewer sits arounds waiting until Bruce Lee himself shows up, battling a couple of experts before fighting the basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar (the difference in their sizes is incredible), which is a superb fight scene and the best part of the movie. After this, Lee reverts back to a double for the ending. Fans with a morbid interest in Lee's death will be interested to see a brief-but-real shot of his corpse in the film - he had a public funeral with an open coffin, and you might have guessed that somebody with a camera would happen to be there at just the right time.