Yes, this movie exists... and no, Bruce Lee doesn't destroy his clones in the movie. He's dead, remember?
A lot of the movies were mostly rehashes on Lee’s pictures.
Some were even unofficial sequels to those movies. There were also some “autobiographies”
if you can call them that. Some would also go play “conspiracy theory” on how
Lee died. Then, there are some really weird ones. Bruce Lee Fights Back From
the Grave (yes, that’s the title!!!) is one of them. You’d be shocked to know
that the movie isn’t even about that weird premise. I think there’s also one
where “Bruce Lee” fights alongside Popeye, James Bond, and Clint Eastwood…
Yeah.
Today, I’m going to talk about some of the ones I’ve seen.
Yes, I’ve seen a few BP movies. Some are actually decent while others are
pretty subpar. I was able to view them all on YouTube since I actually don’t
own these. You’d be shocked to know that Jackie Chan was actually one of the
many clones! Luckily, he only did one movie (New Fist of Fury) and decided to
go in a better direction. Since there are a lot of these movies out there, I’m
only going to look at five starting with The Clones of Bruce Lee… yes, The
Clones of Bruce Lee.
The Clones of Bruce Lee
The Clones of Bruce Lee is that title. With a title like that, you know you're getting something special. In the movie, Bruce Lee dies (no funeral footage luckily), so an
organization hires a scientist (played by the Boss from The Way of the Dragon) to
create three clones of Bruce Lee. The Lees go on missions for the organization
and many fights ensue. Then, the scientist goes mad and makes the clones fight
one another. Luckily, the mad scientist is caught at the end.
This movie is kind of funny. It’s not good of course, but
there’s something about it that makes some of it watchable. The plot is
basically what I just stated. The clones themselves are just there for “Fighty
McFightenstien” (copyright Andrew Leyland) and don’t do anything interesting.
They just fight, fight, talk, fight, look at naked women, fight, and fight. Oh
yeah, there’s a scene on a nude beach here. It’s… something. I’ll just leave it
at that. This whole movie is 90% fighting and 10% plot. The fights themselves
are pretty lackluster.
Lol... I think the guy in the middle saw the poster to this and got confused.
The movie is still somewhat able to entertain. The music is
straight-up disco music, so you can at least dance while the movie is playing.
Some of the music is also recognizable. The Rocky theme song is played. Even
music from The Warriors is played. I was wondering if the Baseball Furies or
the Turnball AC’s were going to show up and fight the clones. Now that’s
something I would want to see. Bolo from Enter The Dragon even shows up for a
couple of fight scenes! The concept of Bruce Lee clones is even a little
interesting even if it’s so ludicrous. Overall, the movie is a dud,
but at least it’s a little entertaining.
The Last Fist of Fury
I actually found this movie on a video called The Real Bruce
Lee. The first 30 minutes is a quick biography and even shows snippets of old
movies Lee did as a youth in China. Afterwards, a feature length movie is shown
starring on of the fake Lees, Dragon Lee. I believe he might turn into Lee if
you squint really hard. Anyway, the movie is basically a rehash of Fist of
Fury. A friend from his school is killed by the rival Japanese force who are
apparently more evil in this than in Fist of Fury. After Dragon kills the main
Japanese teacher, more adept fighters are called in to fight him.
Me:... (Squinting)... I still don't see it.
The movie is okay. It’s your standard low-budget kung fu
movie. The fight scenes aren’t that good, but they can be a little funny at
times. There’s even a ninja in this movie. It’s probably the weirdest thing in
the movie other than the Nazi-looking Japanese. If you’ve seen Fist of Fury,
you really have no reason to see this one. If you’re curious on the Dragon Lee
guy, check it out.
Tower of Death aka Game of Death 2
Tower of Death is another movie that’s a lot like the
revised Game of Death. It takes unused footage of Bruce Lee and a double is
used for fight scenes. It’s weird that it’s also named Game of Death 2 because
it has no relation to the 1978 movie nor the unreleased original. If anything,
it seems like a sequel to Enter the Dragon because the Lee footage is deleted
scenes from that movie. In the movie, Billy Lo (Lee) is investigating the death
of a martial artist when he himself is killed. His younger brother, Bobby Lo (There’s
a Bob? Sweet!) starts his own detective work and tries to figure out who had
his brother killed. It all leads him to an underground pagoda.
Oh no! It's the evil Kenny Loggins! Run!
After Billy Lo dies, the movie becomes Bobby’s (Tao Chung
Kim) movie. This is when the movie does get better. Bobby has to contend with a
lot at the pagoda like a one-armed monk, the evil Kenny Loggins (lol), and some
hot chick. He also has to fight the leader of the whole pagoda. Apparently, he
wants to rule the world or something. Overall, the movie isn’t that bad.
It’s a little crap because of the unused Lee footage and its connections to the
revised Game of Death, but everything else is pretty decent. The fight scenes
are pretty entertaining and the movie is unintentionally funny at times.
Overall, skip the first 20 or so minutes of the thing and you might enjoy it.
Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger
That is one weird name. The movie stars Ho Chong Tao aka “Bruce
Li.” Tao was considered to be one of the best impersonators and he probably
could have been a star by himself. In the movie, Tao plays David Lee aka Tiger,
a student of Bruce Lee. When Bruce Lee suddenly dies, Tiger decides to find out
if there was any foul play involved with his death. His investigating has him
run into a gang of drug dealers who were trying to make Bruce run drugs for
them. “Fighty McFightenstein” (copyright Andrew Leyland) ensues as Tiger gets
his revenge.
Grrrrr!
While this movie is weird to say the least, I thought it was
pretty decent. While the whole story revolving around Bruce Lee’s “death” is
pretty weird, everything else is good. There are a couple of scenes where Tiger
gets actually gets mistaken for Bruce Lee. That was kind of funny and weird
because Tao also played this version of Bruce Lee at the beginning of the movie.
It took me a minute to realize it, but this movie is basically a rehash of Fist
of Fury. Tao even wears the same types of disguises Lee wore in FoF. The basic
story is there, but there are a lot of changes to it.
The fight scenes were pretty good. They were creative and
were a little diverse. I will say that it was a little hard to see what was
going on at times since most of the fights took place in darker places. That
could also have been the quality of the video I watched. I thought the music was pretty
awesome as well. There were some songs I recognized. I think I heard some music
from The Man With the Golden Gun in there too. Overall, this was one of the
decent, fun BP movies.
Enter the Game of Death
My final movie for this post stars
Huang Jian Long aka “Bruce Le.” As you can tell by the title, it’s basically a
rehash of Game of Death. The movie is supposed to take place
before World War 2. In the movie, a
Chinese document is hidden in a pagoda. The Japanese want their hands on it
since it has secrets on China’s national security. Long plays Ang, a martial
artist with some hatred toward the Japanese. He’s assigned to go in and
retrieve the document before the Japanese get their hands on it. At each level
of the tower, he has to face fighters with different styles of martial arts.
Cool! The fake Bruce Lee is fighting the real Kung Fu Joe!
This movie is actually not that bad. It’s not really good
though. The movie itself has some of the ideas that were planned for the
original G.O.D. It kind of also feels like Fist of Fury with since the Japanese
are the villains again. The fight scenes are pretty decent for the most part. Bolo
shows up as a henchman again and that’s always cool. There is one fight that
makes me scratch my head. In the second level of the pagoda, Ang must face a guy who uses
snakes. That might just be one of the weirdest fights I’ve ever seen.
The movie can also be unintentionally funny. The fight audio effects sound ridiculous. It’s
like someone’s hitting an empty jug or something. Most of the dubbed voices
sound ridiculous. While most of the fights are cool, it feels like the movie is
80% fights and 20% plot. There’s also an
unintentionally funny death scene involving Ang’s cousin. A lot of the music is
recognizable. Some of it actually comes from Enter the Dragon itself. Overall,
the movie’s entertaining enough if you’re looking for a lot of fighting.
………………………………………..
As you can see, Bruceploitation is weird. At times, it borders
between absurd, offensive, decent, and funny. There are a lot of other movies
out there, so I might talk about them one day. Do I recommend these? Well, if you’re
really that bored, check them out. It may not be the real Bruce Lee, but some
of them can be pretty entertaining. Well, I’m done talking these movies for
now. I’ll just leave you with this poster. Yes, this does exist!
Also known as False Advertisement: The Movie.
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