Bruce vs. Bill (1981) Poster

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5/10
Workmanlike kung fu film that's pretty good for Bruceploitation
InjunNose17 January 2017
The Bruce Lee imitators were old news by the time this film was made, which meant that director Lin Kuo-hsiang could focus on actually making a movie and not just an assemblage of motifs in which the fighting is almost incidental. Bruce Le is simply 'David', a taciturn figure who struts through the era of Sun Yat-sen in a polyester disco suit (with a talking parrot on his shoulder, believe it or not, and an ultimately treacherous girlfriend named Fanny). Initially, he and Wang Piao (Bill Louie, who co-starred with Jackie Chan's real-life sifu, Yu Chan-yuan, in "The Old Master") are at odds with one another, but finally they team up to foil a plot to steal funds from the Chinese Nationalists. When I say that "Bruce vs. Bill" is workmanlike, I mean that the script and direction are tolerable, and that the fights are adequately choreographed. There's absolutely nothing exceptional about the action in this film, but that's strangely comforting for lifelong fans of chop-socky. You expect stolid heroes, big, mean-looking villains and numerous battles to the death, and that's what you get here. (Best fight: Bill Louie against the snarling, paunchy bald guy at the end of the movie. It gets downright brutal when they scuffle their way into what looks like a primitive water treatment facility.) Average by most standards, but above par for a Bruceploitation flick. Five and a half stars.
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Standard Martial Arts actioner
Serpent-521 September 1999
Chinese-American Bill Louie stars as a waiter holds a key that fits in a safe that contains million dollars. Louie received a key from a dying man who is holding the money for the goverment. European mobster wants the loot and hires Bruce Le to go and get Louie. Later the two bill join forces to battle the bad guy in this borderline kung-fu action film. The film is 1981, but Louie looks very young from his New York shlock film days qith Aquarius Pictures.recommended to kung-fu fans.
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4/10
Bruce Le once again does his best Bruce Lee imitation
Leofwine_draca23 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers
BRUCE VS. BILL is your usual second-rate Hong Kong kung fu story and a vehicle for former Bruceploitation actor Bruce Le. He plays a typically fearless fighter who gets involved with a political subtext and some ruthless villains who end up setting him up against an old friend who's an equally brave combatant. The film has a contemporary setting and although released in 1981 it very much has a '70s look in terms of big-collared fashions and the like. Le is an average actor but kicks well in the fights and the supporting cast are okay, but the look and feel is too familiar for this to be a classic and the fight scenes are merely okay.
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