Enter the Dragon starts as a Shalolin martial arts expert named Lee (co-producer Bruce Lee) is contacted by American secret service agent guy Braithwaite (Geoffrey Weeks) who wants him to go undercover at a martial arts tournament held by international crime-lord Han (Kien Shih), Lee also learns that his younger sister committed suicide after being attacked by Han's bodyguard Oharra (Robert Wall). Lee decides he can not only help rid the world of a vicious crime-lord but avenge the death of his sister, a sort of 'kill two birds with one stone' situation which he can't refuse. Lee travels to Hong Kong & then onto Han's private island where the tournament is held & he runs his criminal empire with the intention of bringing him down...
This Chinese American co-production was directed by Robert Clouse & is generally regarded as a classic, personally I don't think it's deserving of such an accolade but it ain't a bad film. The script by Michael Allin felt like a James Bond flick to me, a secret undercover guy sent in to stop some crime lord who owns his own private island with a secret underground base, he has interchangeable metal hands just like Joseph Wiseman in Dr. No (1963) & he also carries around & strokes a fluffy white cat just like Blofeld in the Bond films! The main bad guy also has a few henchmen including one with a distinctive scar. I suppose the main difference is that Enter the Dragon is far more violent than any Bond film with Bruce Lee's martial arts skills defeating all on comers. In fact it gets pretty boring in the sense that Lee literally kicks & punches everyone out with one hit & no-one can even hit him once. It becomes a precession where you know Lee is going to knock everyone out, the only interest is how he does it either with a punch, a kick or a pair of nun-chucks. I don't really like martial arts films that much & if I want a spy thriller I'll watch a James Bond film & to me Enter the Dragon is some strange mixture of the two which provides decent entertainment & is quite fun but ultimately didn't do much for me. Also how did anyone know that Lee's sister had committed suicide? The only other person in the room was Han's bodyguard Oharra & since Lee's sister killed herself how did anyone else find out? The guy who told Lee was knocked out earlier on by Oharra, answers on a postcard please...
Director Clouse does alright but it's Bruce Lee who is credited with the fight direction & choreography, the fights look good & are pretty violent & if your a fan of Lee then you will love this. The climax set in a room of mirrors, according to the IMDb over 8,000 mirrors were used, is quite a disorientating & imaginative sequence. Enter the Dragon was one of only two American films Bruce Lee appeared in which used his real voice, sadly Lee died in Hong Kong three weeks before the films premiere. The film was shot without sound & all dialogue & sound effects were added in post production, it's very noticeable as well. For all you foot fetishists there is a trampling scene of a barefoot woman standing & walking on a mans back.
With a supposed budget of about $850,000 this didn't have a huge budget by any stretch of the imagination, it's reasonably well made although the fact it's dubbed throughout is painfully obvious. The acting is OK but I find it hard to take actor John Saxon as a martial arts expert seriously.
Enter the Dragon is an OK film, it passes 100 odd minutes painlessly enough. I didn't think it was as good as it's lofty reputation suggested but I liked it all the same. I guess I'm just not a fan of very one sided martial arts fights, there's just not enough vulnerability for Lee's character. Good but not brilliant.
This Chinese American co-production was directed by Robert Clouse & is generally regarded as a classic, personally I don't think it's deserving of such an accolade but it ain't a bad film. The script by Michael Allin felt like a James Bond flick to me, a secret undercover guy sent in to stop some crime lord who owns his own private island with a secret underground base, he has interchangeable metal hands just like Joseph Wiseman in Dr. No (1963) & he also carries around & strokes a fluffy white cat just like Blofeld in the Bond films! The main bad guy also has a few henchmen including one with a distinctive scar. I suppose the main difference is that Enter the Dragon is far more violent than any Bond film with Bruce Lee's martial arts skills defeating all on comers. In fact it gets pretty boring in the sense that Lee literally kicks & punches everyone out with one hit & no-one can even hit him once. It becomes a precession where you know Lee is going to knock everyone out, the only interest is how he does it either with a punch, a kick or a pair of nun-chucks. I don't really like martial arts films that much & if I want a spy thriller I'll watch a James Bond film & to me Enter the Dragon is some strange mixture of the two which provides decent entertainment & is quite fun but ultimately didn't do much for me. Also how did anyone know that Lee's sister had committed suicide? The only other person in the room was Han's bodyguard Oharra & since Lee's sister killed herself how did anyone else find out? The guy who told Lee was knocked out earlier on by Oharra, answers on a postcard please...
Director Clouse does alright but it's Bruce Lee who is credited with the fight direction & choreography, the fights look good & are pretty violent & if your a fan of Lee then you will love this. The climax set in a room of mirrors, according to the IMDb over 8,000 mirrors were used, is quite a disorientating & imaginative sequence. Enter the Dragon was one of only two American films Bruce Lee appeared in which used his real voice, sadly Lee died in Hong Kong three weeks before the films premiere. The film was shot without sound & all dialogue & sound effects were added in post production, it's very noticeable as well. For all you foot fetishists there is a trampling scene of a barefoot woman standing & walking on a mans back.
With a supposed budget of about $850,000 this didn't have a huge budget by any stretch of the imagination, it's reasonably well made although the fact it's dubbed throughout is painfully obvious. The acting is OK but I find it hard to take actor John Saxon as a martial arts expert seriously.
Enter the Dragon is an OK film, it passes 100 odd minutes painlessly enough. I didn't think it was as good as it's lofty reputation suggested but I liked it all the same. I guess I'm just not a fan of very one sided martial arts fights, there's just not enough vulnerability for Lee's character. Good but not brilliant.