This will be a Spoiler-Free review!!
How to watch: Dailymotion (must sign up for a free account)
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
Language: English (dubbed)
Director: Robert Clouse, Bruce Lee (uncredited)
Writer: Robert Clouse (credited as Jan Spears)
Rating: R (USA)
Release Date: 06/08/1979
Style: Action, Crime Drama, Martial Arts
For more show details, you can go to the movie’s pages at IMDB.com and Wikipedia.
Bruce Lee’s Final Screen Appearance
That’s the only spoiler you will see here in this review. Game of Death was, sadly, the last time that Bruce Lee appeared on screen, as he passed shortly before Enter the Dragon premiered. Unfortunately, he had not filmed the whole movie before he passed.
This presented a problem for Golden Harvest Productions and the creative team. They decided a few years later to finish the film as best they could, taking some reshoots and using stand-ins for Bruce Lee. This is why the movie was not released until 1978. Sadly this is not too different from what happened to Bruce’s son, Brandon, with The Crow.
Additionally, this is the only “Bruce Lee” movie I had never fully seen. The first time I had begun to watch the movie, I immediately stopped after the first four minutes when they were obviously using a stand-in in Lee’s place. I did not know the history of the movie and just assumed that this was one of the numerous Bruce Lee-look-alike movies that were very popular after his passing.
So what did I find this time, knowing what I was getting into? Did they do justice to Bruce? Was it even a good movie? Let’s get into it!
Movie Review: 6/10
The Good:
The story of Billy Lo being forced into a position of fighting back against the shadowy and ruthless Syndicate is done pretty well here. Even with the reshoots required to complete the movie, there are no glaring plot holes or contradictions that some movies of this era have been known to have. All of the characters’ stories make sense, and their reactions to what happens within the story stay true to what we know about them. The acting is also admirably performed here. The villains are memorable and an appropriately difficult challenge for Billy. Billy’s girlfriend and her father do a good job as well. Of course, the scenes containing Bruce Lee’s portrayal of Billy Lo are a delight to watch. Even the stand-ins do their best to honor the late Mr. Lee when they are on-screen.
The Bad:
OK, so while I mentioned that the stand-ins for Bruce doing an admirable job was a good thing, there is also a flip side to that. Simply put, you are never fooled when it is not Bruce on screen. It is very jarring at the beginning of the movie when they switch from Lee to one of the stand-ins. While the director did a pretty good job of always keeping the stand-ins from being extremely obvious (sunglasses always on, fake beards, back to the camera, etc.), I still just knew. After a bit, it wasn’t hard to watch the stand-ins as they were on screen for a good period of time unbroken. However, it becomes jarring again eventually. They don’t sound, or look, or move like Bruce. Not at all. It is also very obvious when they quickly use a shot of Bruce from one of his other movies, then cut back to film from this movie. I applaud the creative team and stand-ins for doing the best they could, but the movie review rating suffers because of the unambiguous discrepancy.
Martial Arts Review: 6/10
The Good:
Let’s get the obvious part out of the way. When Bruce Lee is on screen, it’s pure gold. Now that I’ve said that, let’s get to the rest of the good stuff. The general choreography is right in line with other good movies of the era. The various fighting villains do a good job handling their choreography well and rarely look goofy. Even the stand-ins do an admirable job emulating the late Mr. Lee’s unique motions and mannerisms. Apparently, there were two or three stand-ins for Mr. Lee, and different ones would be called upon based on what the choreography of the scene required.
The Bad:
The martial arts review rating suffers for the same reason the movie review rating did: it was very obvious when Bruce wasn’t playing Billy Lo. None of those guys, as much as they tried, were nearly as quick as Bruce. They were only able to emulate his mannerisms, but they never embodied them. This is something that Phillip Ng did very well in the more recent Birth of the Dragon (You can read my review for that here.) This was highly pronounced when they had to use the stand-ins to complete a fight scene that Bruce had filmed the majority of. Going back and forth was a bit jarring.
Overall Rating: 6/10
This movie was much tougher to review than I had expected. On one hand, I was fully aware of the fact that Bruce Lee died before completing filming. On the other, the drop-off from Bruce to his stand-ins was painfully obvious at times. Would I have graded so harshly had this simply been a Bruce-look-alike movie? Maybe so, maybe not. However, this is the movie as it stands. Did I enjoy watching it? Honestly, yes. I won’t say that it is anywhere near Mr. Lee’s other movies, but it is an enjoyable movie overall. This is especially true when Bruce is Billy Lo.
Have you seen Game of Death? What did you think? Let me know in the comments section below!
Game of Death
The Good
- Bruce Lee=Cinematic excellence
- Good acting
- Solid, coherent story
The Bad
- Stand-ins are obvious
- Bruce to Stand-in transitions are jarring
- Odd splices of Bruce from other movies
- Martial Journal Is Growing and Expanding! - August 21, 2019
- The Grandmaster Movie Review - August 3, 2019
- “Big Brother” Movie Review - July 19, 2019
I’m pretty sure the two main stand ins were Yuen Biao and Louis Fan from Riki-Oh
Tristan, I believe you are correct. On the IMDB page, it lists at least three different stand-ins.