The New Game Of Death: Reviews

Reviews Reviews:
The New Game Of Death
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    by Anchor Bay

ALTERNATE SYNOPSIS:
With the King Of Kung Fu gone forever, a Hong Kong producer recruits quick-fisted gymnast and Bruce Lee look-alike Lee Roy Lung (Bruce Li, star of FIST OF FURY II and EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER) to complete the master"s unfinished final project in which Lee is tricked into becoming a courier for a crime syndicate. But when his fiancée is kidnapped, the gangsters challenge Lee to ascend the "Tower Of Death" -- seven levels of combat in which every floor demands a new battle with the world"s fiercest fighters. His last Game Of Death has begun...and a furious Lee is playing for keeps!

Lung Fei (MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE) co-stars in this infamous martial arts hit -- also known as LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE and THE NEW GAME OF DEATH -- from the golden age of Kung Fu cinema.

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    by IVL/Celestial

ALTERNATE SYNOPSIS:
Even if you know the star by his real name, Ho Chung-dao, he is better known throughout the world as Bruce Li, the best of the Bruce Lee imitators. After the tragic death of Bruce Lee prior to the completion of his final film, The Game Of Death, many filmmakers rushed in to do their version of the story, but this is one of the better attempts. Wearing the trademark yellow jumpsuit with the black stripe, Bruce Li takes on every manner of martial artist to save his lady love.
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    by John Richards




While 'Game of Death' and 'Tower of Death' could be viewed as exploitational, they did at least have major studio backing, decent sized budgets and featured the work of some of the best Hong Kong choreographers/actors of the day. 'New Game of Death' unfortunately has none of these saving graces to give it any value whatsoever. The problems start right from the very beginning and it soon becomes clear that the producers didn't really have a credible plot device to get Bruce Li into that yellow track suit.

Bruce Li plays a Bruce Lee look-a-like approached by film producers to help complete the unfinished 'Game of Death'. When Bruce agrees he is asked to view the unfinished footage so that he can learn the real Bruce Lee's style. It's this footage that takes up the rest of the movie and far from featuring Bruce Lee it is actually Bruce Li in a story that has nothing to do with 'Game of Death' other than a pagoda at the end. It just seems that the filmmakers were really struggling for ideas here.

The plot of this 'film within a film' isn't really worth mentioning, suffice to say that the climax sees Bruce Li, in the yellow tracksuit, fight his way up five levels of a pagoda with a different adversary on each floor. His opponents include a Japanese swordsman, a western wrestler, a western boxer and an Indian nunchaku expert. The choreography for the fighting is quite substandard made even worse by the fact that Bruce Li doesn't really move like the real Bruce and appears clumsy and slow rather than lightfooted. In other Bruce Li films that I've seen he hasn't done too badly but here it just doesn't work and maybe points to the low budget and rushed shooting schedules. One to avoid.

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    by City On Fire
    www.cityonfire.com




I hate to admit this, but "New Game of Death" is probably the closest we'll ever see to Bruce Lee's original idea to "Game of Death", as far as the story is involved (see above plot). I liked the fact that they actually used a real Pagoda - there is even a fight on the outer 7th floor if you don't believe me. The fight choreography is classic Bruce Li shit - in other words...get ready to fall asleep. Everyone once in awhile, there is a dramatic pause during a fight scene, which is actually pretty damn cool in a "John Woo" sort of way. Let's not forget about the theme song "King of Kung Fu" (a very Blaxploitation-like sounding tune that has the lead singer saying over and over "He's the Kung of Kung-Fu". All in all, this a nice little colorful Bruce Li film worth watching, at least once - if you can sit through it.

Come on, it's a Bruce Li film - where even the "good" is "bad". Instead of bitching about how awful this film is, I'll describe some of the villains that await Bruce Li in "The Seven Star Tower":

  • First Floor: Bruce Li takes on two VERY low-budget karate dudes who were pulled off the streets to appear in this film.
  • Second Floor: Bruce Li takes on a Samurai. Guess who wins?
  • Third Floor: Bruce Lee, oops, I mean Bruce Li takes on another karate dude/pole fighter. This is where I started to to get bored.
  • Fourth Floor: My favorite! This floor is actually pretty scary, first all you hear is really heavy breathing (beast-like), then they show the bad guy who happens to be a hairy, white-trash lookin' guy who looks as if he just got kicked off his own trailer park! His ass, of course, gets beat...
  • Fifth Floor: Straight from the "Street Fighter" video game comes Dhalsim! Well...almost. Actually it's some Indian guy who get's his nunchucks stolen by Li.
  • Sixth Floor: This is the one that will make you laugh! Remember that rumor where Bruce Lee hired Muhammad Ali to appear in "Game of Death"? Well, there ya go! Of course, it isn't really Muhammad Ali. Instead, it's some guy who looks like Levar Burton who doesn't wear socks - goddamn his feet must stink!
  • Seventh Floor: I'm not gonna give this one away. Go rent the damn video or better yet...borrow it from a friend like I did.
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