Movie Review: Enter The Dragon

4/10A

OK, nostalgia and kitsch aside, Bruce Lee's breakthrough movie is actually, sigh... a bit pants.

IT has been a while since I first saw it, and I am under no illusions that when I saw it then I was sober. It also doesn't help that, it is impossible to watch without laughing out loud at moments from the at times shot-for-shot parody, Fistful Of Yen, which is the star attraction of Kentucky Fried Movie.

The plot, such as it is, centres around Bruce Lee's character, Lee (imagination not high on the agenda) who goes to Dr Klahn's... sorry, Han's island on behalf of a shady international organisation who want him stopped. He is to compete in a tournament and while doing so, investigate the island and if he finds a radio he should contact the organisation who will send in the marines.

Sound hokey? Yup.

It's even worse when you realise there's no reason why they don't send in the marines already and get it over with. Actually, there is a reason, and its so they can fit a movie in the middle of things.

It gets a special A on the rating since it's really, really funny. The acting goes so far towards the bad end of the scale that it actually goes past bad and ends up back at being incredible again. Add the fact that it is dubbed to this and the mental plot then it achieves a perfect storm of awfulness.

So what we have is a terrible plot with terrible acting that becomes an unintentional laugh riot.

So why should you watch it? Simple. Bruce Lee was a kung fu God - he arranged all the fight scenes and does things with his body that simply should not be physically possible. It's frankly beautiful to see him fighting. This is famously one of the criticisms of the movie, that Lee makes violence seem exceptionally cool and attractive. The bit with the nunchucks caused countless injuries...

Look, it's sad but there's not much else to say... apart from to bemoan the laughable blaxploitation subplot with the other two nominal heroes of the piece.

Ah well... I remember Fist Of Fury being much better.

A