Bruce Lee The Man, The Myth is probably the first martial arts movie that I remember seeing. I remember on Saturday afternoons after Saturday morning cartoons channel 29 had "Kung Fu Theater" and played all kinds of old school kung fu movies. This was one that they played a lot and is also my introduction to Bruce Lee. The film is chronologically correct, but for the most part the story and the amount of fights Bruce got in are greatly exaggerated or fiction. If you want to learn about Bruce Lee, there are some excellent documentaries and books to learn about the man and his life. However, Bruce Lee The Man, The Myth is a very entertaining film and everything I want in a classic kung fu movie. Even though Bruce Li is a Bruce Lee imitator, he is really good. While pretty much nobody was in the shape Bruce Lee was in, or had the explosive power that he had, Bruce Li was in great shape and possesses great fighting skills. Plus, he has plenty of charisma and kind of resembles Bruce Lee. The fights are incredible and there is a lot of them here. When watching foreign films, I normally prefer to watch them in its original language and subtitles. This is one notable exception and the ridiculous dialouge put this movie over the top with some truly memorable, hilarious dialouge that I find myself quoting all time. While the film is more fiction than fact, this is highly entertaining and has a larger budget than most of the other Brucespoitation movies that came out during this period. Shot on location in Hong Kong, the US and Europe, this is bar far the most well made of these films as well as a big personal favorite. For anyone that might remember The Headbanger's Ball on MTV in the 80's, you might recall them showing clips from this movie with SOD playing in the background. While I highly doubt Bruce Lee told everyone their martial arts are garbage, laughed at them and beat them up, Bruce Lee The Man, The Myth is a beautiful movie man and if you have'nt seen this, you are truly missing out.

I imagine that somewhere, somebody has sat down to watch BRUCE LEE - THE MAN, THE MYTH expecting to see a worthwhile biography of the late, lamented martial arts master and instead found themselves sitting through a plot less (though action-packed) fight flick. Bruce Lee's life story is told through action rather than words as its basically little more than one long series of elaborate fight sequences in different locations with only the bare backbone of a storyline that manages to incorporate footage of Lee's corpse at his funeral and even his gravestone (which I presume isn't faked). All is not lost, however, as this is actually a fairly big budget and official-feeling version of the big man's life and times, managing to convey at times his struggle to bring Chinese cinema and kung fu to the western world, and even managing a little foreboding towards the end of the movie as his death becomes imminent.

Production values are good, with crisp, clear photography and great locations. However, where this film really excels is with the action sequences which are exceptionally good. Bruce Li acquits himself beautifully with his imitation of the master and manages to be very close to the man he plays in terms of style, action and characteristics. He fights very well indeed (some of the slickest, fastest, most powerful fighting I've seen in a kung fu film here) and the choreography, being excellent, adds to the experience. About 80% of the movie consists of the action and the rest involves elaborate training sequences and plot filler, wasting time until the next inevitable bout of martial arts mayhem. The only flaw is in the occasional bad dubbing, especially the hilarious interlude with a crowd of British joggers! This is a solid actioner, nothing more and nothing less, that pays tribute to Bruce Lee as it should.

This is a biopic of the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee staring Bruce Li. It's actually quite an effective film about his rise to stardom. Li has one half the charisma of Bruce Lee but that's not unexpected. The plot follows his life especially in his epic fights. The action is solid with loads of hand to hand combat. Li is at least competently skilled in that arena. There are some missing story elements and some liberties are taken as always. His family life is mostly in the background. The production value may not be that high but in a way, it matches those Bruce Lee movies of that era. It's a functional biopic and that's more than expected.