Bruceploitation Corner returns after an absence forced by not seeing any new Bruceploitation movies in the time between this one and the last one, but the good news is it's back with a bang, featuring two titles -one completely unlike anything that's gone before it- and another that as a villain then throws poisonous snakes at the hero... Anyway on with the classics.
When Bruce Lee died in 1973, it left a massive gaping hole in the Eastern superstar market which expoloitation producers filled with likes of "lookalikes" such as Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and many more, it often varied in the lookalike stakes from not at all to maybe a little, some of them where pretty good fighters whilsts not been BRUCE, but not all of them not even Bruce himself could say they starred in a movie like The Dragon Lives Again (1978- again with most Bruceploitation movies the year seems to vary from source to source) which starred Bruce Leong (who didn't look like Bruce Lee at all, go on look at the picture above -nothing like him right-) as Bruce Lee, who dies and goes to hell and gets on the bad side of the King of Hell (whose very a very randy King of Hell aswell) after an erection/nunchuk joke that lasts about 10 minutes Bruce goes on is way to a part of Hell that looks like Chinatown at the turn of the century, Bruce then seems to get on the wrong side of rag-tag bunch of villains which include James Bond (The only thing he as in Sean Connery is that he is white), Dracula (who doesn't mind going out in broad daylight), Clint Eastwood (Chinese and dressed as The Man With No Name), The Exorcist (French, male and looks nothing like Linda Blair), The Godfather (nothing like Marlon Brando, the fact that he and The Exorcist continually get called by their name is the fact they repeatedly get called by their names) and Emmanuelle (whose hot) aswell as a bunch of minions in them crazy skeleton suits. They repeatedly go after Bruce for reasons never fully explained but luckily Bruce as got friends on his side including Popeye (What did Popeye do to get into Hell? Slaughter Olive Oil in cold blood), Popeye is played by Eric Tsang whose actually gone on to have a succesful career.
Anyway there's lots of gratious T&A shots, a great sequence of Bruce dancing with Emmanuelle, a bunch of Mummys, the names of Bruce's fighting styles which include The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon and best of all The Third Leg of Bruce. This film deserves to be a hit on the cult circuit i.e. stoner college students, weird films fan. Highly recommended. The Best Bruceploitation movie of all time?
Enter the Game of Death (1979 or 80), rip-offs the titles of two Bruce Lee films in one (how many Bruceploitation films can say that) and sees Bruce Le wear Bruce Lee's famous Yellow and Black jumpsuit for most of the movie. The films craptrap plot involves the Chinese, Japanese and Germans (and probably others) obsessed with a secret document that for some reason is been kept at the top of a tower, so the good guys (read: The Chinese) send Bruce Le up the tower to fight a number of baddies a la Game of Death, most of the baddies aren't too great truth be told except one a guy who throws poisonous snakes at our hero, that is the greatest scenes in this movie and without it could almost be described as a lacklustre affair until the last 20 or so minutes which is non stop fighting, among Le's opponents are Bolo Yeung (who was in any Enter the Dragon aswell as many other Bruceploitation movies) and a black tall guy, who I imagine the only thing he as in common with Kareem Abdul-Jabber is that he is a black tall guy. Recommended for some good moments but far from essential.
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