Legend

 

 (themoviedb.org)

BRUCE LEE THE LEGEND-1984-This documentary has rare scenes of Lee as a child actor (some with his comedic actor dad), his now famous black & white interview, scenes of him as Kato and TV's "Longstreet". Raymond Chow, head of Golden Harvest, explains how Lee convinced him to make "THE BIG BOSS (FIST OF FURY in the US) and FISTS OF FURY (THE CHINESE CONNECTION in the US). Both were huge hits. Then writing, directing and starring in THE WAY OF THE DRAGON. Good behind the scenes footage from ENTER THE DRAGON and GAME OF DEATH. 

There's speculation on his death and interviews with Nora Miao (his WAY OF THE DRAGON co-star), Betty Ting Pei (long thought to be his mistress) and director Robert Clouse. This Golden Harvest tribute is good but hardly a definitive bio. Leonard Ho, normally a producer, directed.

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Doggone Dogs!

 

 (tmdb)

THE PACK-1977-Abandoned wild dogs band together to terrorize residents and tourists on Seal Island. They kill a horse then a blind man. A marine biologist (Joe Don Baker; WALKING TALL) gets concerned when his girlfriend (Hope Alexander Willis) is attacked. One unfortunate woman seeks shelter in the place where the dogs hang out. Locals Cobb (RG Armstrong) and Hardiman (Richard B. Shull) help out. The survivors barricade themselves in as the dogs get more aggressive. 

This low budget “canines gone wild” horror/survival story features a great long climax. Robert Clouse (ENTER THE DRAGON) directed and co-scripted it with David Fisher, who wrote the novel the movie is based on.

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Black Belt Jones

BLACK BELT JONES-Black Belt Jones (Jim Kelly) is a Kung-Fu cop who beats up bad guys, makes loud noises and has terrible fights. Mob boss “The Don” (Andre Philippe) wants the land a karate school is on. It's run by Poppa Bear (Scatman Crothers) and his two sons. A black gangster named Pinky (Malik Carter) tries to horn in but Poppa's students beat him and his inept gang up. After the gang accidentally kills Poppa his daughter Sidney (Gloria Hendry) takes over the school. Later Pinky kidnaps a young student, so Jones puts together a team consisting of himself, Sidney, Poppa's son Toppy (Alan Weeks) and some female gymnasts! They dress as ninjas and infiltrate The Don's place and steal photographs and money to pay Clarence's ransom. After a ludicrous fight on a train car (the thugs just stand in line and get beat up), Jones turns the two gangs against each other. He also takes time to frolic on the beach with Sidney. The unintentionally funny climax takes place in a car wash where Jones beats up the bad guys amid a sea of soap suds (no one bothers using a gun)!

Despite being directed by Robert Clouse who made ENTER THE DRAGON the year before (also with Kelly) this isn't very well done. Maybe they were in a rush to play off the success of DRAGON and Kelly who pumps his fist a lot while doing a bad Bruce Lee imitation. A made in Hong Kong sequel showed up a few years year.

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Lee's Game

GAME OF DEATH-1978-Every martial arts movie fans' favorite paste up job. The legendary Bruce Lee began this film as producer/writer/director in 1973.

While filming Lee got an offer from Warner Bros. to star in the most expensive budgeted martial arts at the time (ENTER THE DRAGON). He planned to resume shooting on GAME but died of a cerebral edema (some might disagreed with the cause of death) before DRAGON's release leaving behind about 100 minutes of footage. In 1978 DRAGON's director Robert Clouse was hired to make a movie out of the remaining footage.

The story concerns a martial arts film star Billy Lo (either Kim Tai-jung aka Tony Lung, or Yuen Biao doubling for Lee who appears briefly in close-ups and in scenes from WAY OF THE DRAGON (used as the film he's working on; Chuck Norris also appears). He's under pressure from a syndicate boss Dr. Land (Dean Jagger) and his smart ass henchman Steiner (Hugh O'Brian; still alive at the time of this writing). Billy refuses to buckle under the syndicate's grip so Land sends an assassin (Mel Novak) to kill the star. Billy is shot but not killed but with the help of his reporter/friend (Gig Young in his last role) fakes his death and has plastic surgery so he can get revenge on the gang. He wears various disguises (so he doesn't look like the real Lee) and beats up a corrupt American martial artist (real pro Karate fighter Robert Hall). Later, after his girlfriend (Coleen Camp) has been kidnapped,  in the film's most famous scenes, Billy (the real Lee) has to fight three guardians played by Don Insanto (his real life student), Korean Hapkido master Ji Han-jae and former pro basketball player Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Writer/director Robert Clouse does a good job of editing together scenes of the real and fake Lees but even still the movie doesn't ring true and the re-editing and Lee doubles ultimately do in the production.

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