Scott LeBrun In his final project, kung fu icon Bruce Lee stars as Billy Lo, a martial arts movie star who is targeted by a "syndicate" that likes to lay claim to entertainers such as him. Of course, they want more than just a piece of the action. When an attempt is made on his life on a film set, he decides to "play dead" (a morbid twist, given Lees' fate) in order to pull the wool over the eyes of the gangsters, and rescue his girlfriend Ann (a very appealing and sexy Colleen Camp), a successful singer.For a movie that will always be viewed by some as an exploitative hack-job, "Game of Death" is entertaining enough to keep the audience watching. Production on this had started back in 1972, but only limited footage of Lee had been produced. Several years later, Robert Clouse, who had directed Lee in his most well-known film, "Enter the Dragon", reunited the surviving cast members and used doubles (Tae-jeong Kim and Biao Yuen) to fashion new scenes for the Billy character. This works moderately well, except for one glaring instance near the beginning where Lees' head is obviously superimposed over somebody else."Game of Death" benefits from a rich cast of familiar faces - Gig Young as Billy and Anns' newspaperman friend, Dean Jagger and Hugh O'Brian as mobsters, Mel Novak, Danny Inosanto, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (!) as henchmen, Chuck Norris as a fighter, Roy Chiao as Billy's uncle, etc. Old pros Young, O'Brian, and especially Jagger come off pretty well, and Camp offers a bright presence as the girlfriend. Lee, as always, is cool and charismatic, what little we see of him.As could be expected, it really comes to life in various fight and action scenes. The final 20 or so minutes, when Billy works his way up the floors of a warehouse and combats one henchman after another, is an impressive highlight; even the fight with Kareem is pretty effective.In some ways, this *can* be seen as a tasteless effort to trade on Lees' brand name (real footage of his funeral is utilized), and martial arts enthusiasts may be disappointed. Among those who refused to participate were Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Muhammad Ali, who each dismissed the project as exploitative and were underwhelmed by the paychecks offered. But more casual fans of this kind of thing may find it an okay view, if not a particularly good film.In an extremely sad note, the maiming of Billy on the film set is all too reminiscent of what would happen to Bruces' son Brandon approximately 20 years later when the latter starred in "The Crow".Seven out of 10.

alexanderdavies-99382 "Game of Death" was a film that Bruce Lee failed to complete on account of halting production so he could make "Enter the Dragon." After the tragic passing of the martial artist in 1973, his unfinished movie was eventually released in 1979. For the fans, it was to be a final glimpse of their idol after Bruce Lee had revolutionised both the Hong Kong film industry and Martial Arts in general. The travesty for the film that was made in the late 1970s, is in such poor taste. The reason for this, is on account of it being exploitive, it's an insult to Bruce Lee and everything he stood for. In addition - and I was stunned by this - actual footage of Lee's funeral was used for the film! Why Robert Clouse wanted to become involved is anyone's guess! He had gone from making the classic "Enter the Dragon," followed by "Black Belt Jones" and now this. The so-called plot is exploitation personified and bears no resemblance whatever to Lee's concept for his own version. The lookalikes for Bruce Lee aren't very good at all but at least they look as though they can fight quite well. A seasoned character actor like Dean Jagger should have turned this film down. Begrudgingly, there are a couple of fight scenes that are digestible but not much else to enjoy. Sammo Hung has a pretty good fight with Bob Wall. The confrontation in the locker room between one of the lookalikes and Wall is also OK. Then and almost out of nowhere, the man himself makes a late appearance in the film's plot and we suddenly whiz back in time to the latter half of 1972 when Bruce Lee was working on "Game of Death." His three fight scenes are excellent as always and this is the first time that a one on one nunchuku scene had been put on film. Lee is on screen for 11 minutes but it is by far the best footage by many miles. The footage looks a lot more cinematic and professional than Bruce Lee's previous three movies. It is a considerable loss that he couldn't complete the film. Briefly, the original idea was for Bruce Lee and a team of his fellow martial artists to discover what was inside this Pagoda, which had a martial artist guarding each floor of the building. Lee and his party were to have progressed by defeating each guard and reach the top floor. Bruce Lee began shooting his version in August of 1972 and halted production in October of the same year. His film would have dwarfed the one that was released in every way possible!

Sir_watch_alot ...is a 40 minutes edit, of the original footage shot before his death. According to his own script notes. I give Game of Death a seven because it's entertaining. I give 'Game of death Re-visited' which can be found on the platinum double disc edition of the thirtieth anniversary tribute of the by Hong Kong legends distribution company presented 'Game of death' a full on ten. Those 40 minutes are so much better then the pretending to be a Bruce Lee movie 'Game of death'. It's so much joy to see the master at work.It's the tower scene at the end. But way better. And way longer. And way different. And presented in an awesome aspect ratio of 3:1. So cool.If you like Bruce Lee and/or martial arts, try and find that version. Maby it's on blu ray as well. If not I hope they will release it. I had this DVD in my possession for about ten years. Only yesterday I found out about this version. Thank's to Bey Logans commentary on 'Fist of fury'. I think... Could be 'Way of the dragon'. Well. From now on I'll be showing this version to whoever wants to see Bruce Lee at work.

Yipikaye I really enjoyed Game Of Death. I really love the scenes that Bruce Lee shot for this movie. You have to give credit for the makers trying they best finishing this movie, it wasn't easy as they had build a story around 40 minutes roughly of fight footage that Bruce Lee was included and many other stars from previous movies. The directors obviously didn't make the movie Bruce Lee would wanted it. But they gave it a interesting plot which I really enjoyed watching. Its completely different from the original plot, but still enjoyable. Make sure you see the original footage Bruce Lee shot which is extended from the 1978 version of the movie. You can find it on YouTube or an documentary Warriors Journey which also contain outtakes.