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Fist of Fear, Touch of Death More at IMDbPro »

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14 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
If only Bruce Lee hadn't died..., 3 November 2004

Author: AwesomeWolf from Australia

... then movies like this would never have been made.

If you've ever seen a Bruce Li/Le/Lai/ or Dragon Lee movie, then you should know what Bruce-ploitation is all about. "Fist of Fear, Touch of Death" takes Bruce-ploitation several steps further, and to a new low. The basic plot of the movie is apparently centered around a martial arts bout to determine Bruce Lee's successor.

Most of the movie follows interviews with Bruce Lee, dubbed and spliced with Aaron Banks and Adolph Caesar. Fictional scenes of his family depict Bruce Lee as a martial arts-obsessed teenager ("Mother, I can kill a man with my bare hands - you don't understand me!", yet later calling someone else crazy...), randomly spliced with scenes from an old chopsocky movie supposedly depicting Bruce Lee's great-grandfather as "19th century China's greatest samurai" - can't have been too hard, I don't think there were many. These scenes take up most of the movie - I nearly forgot about the whole determining Bruce Lee's successor thing, and when they finished, I was so happy thinking that the movie was over, only to realize there were another twenty minutes. Damn. It seems as though the writers (if any) forgot what the basic plot was about and went off on same bizarre rant about Bruce Lee's heritage (the one they made up, not his real heritage).

This movie does not have cult-status in any way, nor does it give the cheesy-laughs you'd expect from a regular chopsocky movie. The only thing it manages to do is insult Bruce Lee and his legacy (even Fred Williamson says the same thing in this sad excuse for a movie). Avoid at all costs.

1/10

14 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
The legend discontinues, 18 July 2004

Author: jay_banerjee from NYC, USA

The most vicious words in the English language cannot describe the truly execrable quality of this film. It's really, really bad. I mean awful. Every night before I go to sleep, I pray to the Heavens with all my heart, beseeching for my one wish for the human race to someday be granted: that Bruce Lee will rise from the grave, repeatedly kick whoever is responsible for this crime against humanity, and then rest in peace.

This film affords you the unique perspective of a schizophrenic martial arts enthusiast on acid. Footage of what is apparently a world's martial arts championship done in the shadow of Lee's death is spliced with bizarre clips of interviews, Japanese soap operas, and samauri movies, all dubbed mind-bogglingly in order to tell some kind of story about Bruce Lee's life and legend. That it's blatant nonsense is beside the point. It doesn't even make sense! There's nothing remotely coherent about this movie. Sometimes we cut from one set of footage to another in mid-sentence.

The humor value of its sheer awfulness is some compensation. Not much, but some. In the end, though, you're left more confused than you've ever been in your entire life. And after that feeling passes a few months later, it's too late to get your money back.

1/10

12 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
This is the worst piece of crap I've ever seen. IT IS VERY FUNNY THOUGH!, 20 February 2000

Author: zer0-3

Ok. I rented this movie last night with my friends thinking that it would be a good kung fu movie starring Bruce Lee (that's what it said on the cover). Bruce isn't even in this movie, except for a few clips that were poorly dubbed. There is this one part that shows the life of the young Bruce Lee. It uses some great 1950's jive. My personal favorite was "superstious mumbo jumbo". Oh yeah, I am still wondering why the Chinese people were named Jack, and Sue...

The fight scenes were not just okay.. they were pure cheese. I think they were the inspiration for the Power Rangers. They were totally unrealistic and they made me nausiated trying to follow the close up camera angles that were off center.

My favorite part of the film (there were actually about 6 of them spliced together) came in the first unrelated fight scene flashback when Bruce's great-grandfather dodges arrows from 4 bowmen, picks the arrows up and in one throw kills all 4 bowmen. There are so many outrageously cheesy parts to this film I can't name them all in 1,000 words!!

When watching this movie I have to suggest a few things:

1. See this with at least one or two friends. Seeing it alone is dangerous, and you will probably try to break something.

2. Watch this movie all the way through. My friends and were laughing so hard at some parts we were teary eyed.

3. Don't try to drink anything while seeing the fight scenes, I almost choked during one.

4. Watch the end credits where it says the names of all the people in the movie. Notice were it says "featuring:" and then gives the names of the members of the gang at the end (none of them were actually mentioned during the "film"). My favorite is Ron Harvey as "Jasper Milktoast".

5. When finished with this movie go back to the bad fights scenes and play them in slow motion. Pay careful attention to the guys in the background running around aimlessly. They almost stole the show!

I know this is a long review, but there's so much to be said about it. Even though this movie is probably the worst film I have ever seen, it is one of the funniest. If you want a good laugh and have a few hours to waste, please see this POS movie! It's craptacular!

10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Only look to this for comedy!, 7 September 2003
Author: Andy Troy (groovycow@hotmail.com) from Hempstead, NY

FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH is to the martial-arts genre what KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE is to the horror genre; it is pure and utter exploitational shlock...and yet it is hysterically, unintentionally funny.

Despite what others have said about this film being a "disgrace" to the name of Bruce Lee, I found it as more of a tribute, despite its numerous references to "Bruce Lee's successor." The general story is that the Madison Square Gardens is hosting a tournament to determine the aforementioned "successor," with Oscar-winner (not for THIS film!) Adolph Caesar as the hokey announcer. Also along for the ride is Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, determined to make his mark upon the blaxploitation world!! Through a series of poor flashbacks, the pair relate Bruce's (purely fictional) story.

The writer of this film certainly has a talent for penning crap, and yet my friends and I couldn't help but laugh so hard we cried. Clips from an old Chinese soap opera are re-dubbed to make Bruce's "biography," which then introduce a flashback-IN-a-flashback (got that?) about Bruce's great-grandfather, who was apparently a samurai. The footage for this segment is taken from INVINCIBLE SUPER CHAN, a cult classic in its own right due to a numerous wire tricks, a midget, and some guy with an abacus. Who knows what the writer of FIST OF FEAR was thinking when he wrote this...however, who cares??

The laughs that FIST OF FEAR will cause are practically nonstop, from Williamson's white beeyotch who insists on "making it a six-pack", to his being mistaken for Harry Belafonte, to Bill Louie's cameo as "Green Hornet"'s Kato (he kills a would-be rapist with shurikens!). The actual tournament footage is poor, and yet as a viewer you probably won't even care. After all, Adolph Caesar's final words about there being "no true successor to such a master" seem to make the whole movie alright.

Overall, FIST OF FEAR is a keeper. Show it to your friends, bring lots of snacks, and sit back to have a good long laugh. My rating: 8/10

5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
The box claimed "Bruce Lee ...in the original martial arts classic!", 19 December 2004

Author: Alexander Kominek from Canada

Unfortunately, this film neither features real martial arts, nor is it a classic. It hardly even features Bruce Lee, except for some old footage that has been re-dubbed to make it look like Lee actually agreed to this film being made. I hope somebody got sued for this one.

This could have been a good documentary about the "1979 Karate Championship" but most of the footage from the karate matches is obviously staged, and has little to do with Chinese martial arts. Some interesting "facts" were revealed by this film however. For instance, prior to watching "Fist of Fear", I had no idea that Lee's great grandfather was the greatest Chinese samurai warrior.

There are a few funny moments in the film (the Bill Louie Kato scene, or when Fred Williamson is introduced for example) but if you have any respect for Bruce Lee or film-making in general, I would highly recommend avoiding this film.

- Lex

5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
This is the funniest Cult Classic ever!, 10 March 1999
Author: William (williamnorton316@hotmail.com) from Seattle, Washington

The film takes place in Madison Square garderns for a bout that is for the Bruce Lee title. (even though the markee on the arena said Karate demonstration) The Late Adolf Ceasar plays himself talking about Bruce's death, and how fight promoter Aaron Banks claiming Bruce Lee was murdered by "the Touch of Death". Aaron even showed a demo of the move by breaking a board into two, even though Mr. Banks tells us the hit will slowly kill you, it sure kill the board on contact. Fred Williamson, Ron Van Clief plays themselves in series of skits. Bill Louie does Kato in one skit. Massive stock footage several good Kung-Fu film is also shown as Adolf tells us this is footage of Bruce's great grandfather (yeah right!), who is a Samurai warrior (he's Chinese!). in the end, this so called Bruce Lee title was Joe Cyclone Flood vs. Louie Negira, and it was a kickboxing match, which look to me like a regular bout that the producer filmed and claimed it was Bruce Lee title for the film. Lots of funny gags with Williamson, and lots of music lifted off other films. This film seems to be in lots of label lately, so Aquarius films must have not put a copyright on it. I think this film could've been a cult classic because it's so bad, but I am surprised Bruce Lee's family did file a lawsuit making Bruce into a wimpy, arrogant, jerk in several dubbed over fake stockfootage interview Adolf conducted. Oh yes, there is some footage of Bruce from a old soap opera he did in Hong Kong, and they did dub it over into a comedy.

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Spectacularly horrible, 7 October 2006

Author: pwt1981

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Only in the presence of this movie can Gigli and Glitter be called cinematic masterpieces without a trace of irony or sarcasm. When they have a karate tournament (of which only the "finals" are shown) to succeed Bruce Lee culminate in a boxing match with a few kicks thrown in, you know God Himself will have a hard time elevating this movie from the bowels of hell to putrid. Over and above the relative absence of martial arts, there was barely a hint of a plot, what plot existed was completely disjointed, and there was abysmal acting (if that's what you want to call it), Aaron Banks' scenes with Bruce Lee, where they took turns telling each other how great they are (shoot me now), didn't even look close to being in the same room. After watching this movie, if I didn't know better, I would've thought Bruce Lee had been forced to an advance screening and applied the Touch of Death to himself.

If I had to bring up pluses for the movie, it would have to be the exhibitions of some of the true martial artists. The old chop-socky film that introduced Bruce Lee's grandfather in between Lee arguing with his dad over steak (?!) was funny in the sense of watching someone get repeated hit in the groin. It featured a little person and a guy that uses an abacus as a weapon. And if this movie wanted to be the worst ever, it succeeded admirably. If you want a new appreciation on any movie (including Santa with Muscles and Napoleon Dynamite), watch Fist of Fury, Touch of Death. All others, avoid.

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
If you need a laugh, this is the place to get it!, 1 April 2004
Author: aggie80 from United States

What a hoot! No one could watch this without falling off the chair laughing! There are scenes of one guy supposedly plucking out eyeballs! Talk about huge amount of ridiculous stereotypes with confusion between one fighter and Harry Belafonte by the hotel.

There are scenes from lots of old kung fu type movies as well as an early Bruce Lee movie. There are also some terribly dubbed Bruce Lee interviews with poor voice acting.

There is no plot, just a poorly threaded 'broadcast' by an actor who wouldn't even put his real name on the part! (Or too unimaginative to come up with a name for the part! You have to laugh while watching this one or you are taking life all together too serious!

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
The biggest scam ever in the history of movies, 24 April 2003
Author: customX13

Caution, never buy a movie as cheap as $5.99 or else you're going to be scammed! I saw this movie sitting in a bin with other rediculous B-Movie genres but what caught my attention obviously was Bruce Lee. I read the commentary, it didn't explain much about Bruce except only about some martial arts event in New York's Madison Square Garden? At first I was confused, was this an actual event where Bruce appeared, it sounded like it did. Plus the movie mentions real live clips of Bruce in action. Bruce in action at Madison Square Garden? I've never seen this before ever, this I got to see! This sounded too good to be true, and sadly I was devastatingly fooled. I watched this movie(actually with DVD I breezed through in minutes) and to my surprise no Bruce, no real footage, nada, nothing. The film, according to my martial arts knowledge, contains a bunch of has beens, never was, or complete unknown practitioners and fighters. Without a doubt the biggest crock film ever in an attempt to profit off of Lee and whoever put this garbage together should be locked up!

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Biggest ripoff (and worst movie) of all time, 5 September 2003

Author: chengiz from NY

I think this is meant to be a farce. But it isnt. It is just rotting horse manure masquerading as a movie. The DVD cover makes you think that Bruce Lee stars in this movie and there are actual Bruce Lee fight scenes. There's nothing of the sort. Somebody should sue the guys who brought this out. It is blatantly false advertising. Is Bruce Lee's estate listening?

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