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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Story of a Fake Bruce

STORY OF THE DRAGON-Bruce Lee lookalike Bob (Bruce Li) and his inept friend (Carter Wong) are fired from their restaurant jobs after a fight with 3 "foreigners". They prevent the duo from getting other jobs and get beat up again. They manage to get a job unloading ocean containers. The foreign gang is run by an Asian martial arts teacher with very dark skin and a black wig (I think he was suppose to be Japanese). The nephew of the container station owner shows up and beats up the gang. Though there's a lot of talk about foreigners I think this is suppose to take place in San Francisco which would explain all the white guys. Fake Bruce opens his own school and teaches everyone. The big boss, Mr. Grace says of Kung-Fu: "it's out of date. It's 900 years old!".  Later Lee-Clone beats up Mr. Charlie (Roy Horan) but a "boxing champion" wrecks the school. The boxer defeats Lee in a fight but he trains hard for a rematch. Everyone joins in for the unintentionally funny fights in the finale.

This may also be known as BRUCE LEE: A DRAGON STORY re-dubbed to "less resemble" the real Lee's life story. Co-directors Chi Chang and  Hua Chen were better know for cinematography and second unit work.

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Why Did They Bother?

FINISHING THE GAME-2007-This fake documentary is about the search for a new Bruce Lee so a producer (played by Sam Bottoms) can finish Lee's GAME OF DEATH. It's not really about Bruce Lee or Martial Arts but more about stereotyping Asian American actors and similar to THIS IS SPINAL TAP but more influenced by reality show TV. Parts of it are clever (especially scenes from a Martial Arts movie starring "Breeze Loo") but most of it is silly, pretentious interviews with the would be loser cast members. Some are amusing but most just go on too long.

The one serious part features an Asian-American actor who tries unsuccessfully to fight against stereotyping. It's certainly true but in a way it doesn't fit with the rest of the nonsense!

It seems a little strange to be doing a take off on Lee (although his influence in Martial Arts is still felt) and '70's Kung-Fu drive-in movies (although I guess they are still popular). It's sort of like when Mel Brooks made SPACEBALLS.

I understand what the filmmakers were trying to do but maybe I was just disappointed because the synopsis I read for it made it sound like a real documentary. The director Justin Lin also made FAST & FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT.

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More Bruce Clones

BRUCE LEE WE MISS YOU-1976-A martial artist who worships the original Bruce and acts a little like him too (wannabe Lee clone Bruce Li who made many Hong Kong movies with the name Bruce in the titles) is devastated when “the great one” dies. He decides Lee was murdered and investigates. There are a lot of fights (the last fight goes on very long) and not much else. At one point he fights a gang of Asian thugs made up to look Black. 

Star Li (from Taiwan) later directed a couple of movies. He retired from acting in the mid ‘80’s.

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When Will Lee Return?

When is a movie about Bruce Lee not really a movie about Bruce Lee? When it's BRUCE LEE-THE MAN THE MYTH (1976).


Bruce Li (one of the many post-Lee clones) portrays The Mighty Lee who doesn't want to come to America. His mother makes him! He frolics in Seattle with his college student buddies and beats up some Karate bullies when their Japanese teacher refuses to admit Karate came from Kung-Fu. He goes to San Francisco to visit a friend ("Your Kung-Fu is really amazing") and develops his own style, Jeet Kune Do. He has a wild fight in an airport on the way to a tournament. A weird studio executive tells him no one wants to invest money in a young Chinese actor and he's shown in his "Kato" chaffeuer's uniform while filming "The Green Hornet". He goes back to Hong Kong to make movies and insults some Thai boxers and an English (?) running team. He smirks a lot and comes off as an egotistical asshole.

Although real scenes of the real Lee's funeral are shown, 2 alternate endings based on rumors are presented (one says he would return in 1986; I missed him!).

Director See-Yuen Ng made other movies including NEW GAME OF DEATH. Bruce Li made many more movies with Bruce Lee's name in the title but not since 1986....

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Bruce Clone

BRUCE LEE WE MISS YOU-1976-A martial artist who worships the original Bruce and acts a little like him too (wannabe Lee clone Bruce Li who made many Hong Kong movies with the name Bruce in the titles) is devastated when “the great one” dies. He decides Lee was murdered and investigates. There are a lot of fights (the last fight goes on very long) and not much else. At one point he fights a gang of Asian thugs made up to look Black.


Star Li (from Taiwan) later directed a couple of movies. He retired from acting in the mid ‘80’s.

Shhh! He's Not Lee!

BRUCE LEE’S SECRET-1977-Bruce Li (who looks a lot like you know who) is Bob Lee, a young Chinese waiter in San Francisco. He just wants to be left alone but evil American drug lords (one is an Asian guy made up to look African American) keep horning in on his business. He doesn’t like the way The Chinese are treated and eventually does something about it with his fists and feet. Later on he gets all his friends (including a little kid) to beat up on the bullying white guys. I guess the secret is we are not suppose to know it’s not the real Bruce Lee…

He makes a lot of noise though and the fights are well done!

Wong Chia-La (aka Carter Wong) plays his friend. BL’S also features Roy Horan, an executive at the Hong Kong based Seasonal Film Corp. (the company that produced this film). He was better known for his later appearance as The Priest who turns out to be a Russian villain in SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW with Jackie Chan.

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