User Reviews

BRUCE'S FISTS OF VENGEANCE is your usual kung fu film courtesy of the Philippines. It stars noted Bruceploitation actor Bruce Le in the usual kind of storyline involving a martial arts tournament and some sinister gang members who need taking care of at the hands of our super fighting hero. The film has a bright and colourful air to it and plenty of action which makes it an easy watch.

Let's be realistic because there's no pretending that this is a good film; it isn't. However, it is fast paced and as a Bruceploitation film it could be a lot worse. The fight choreography isn't the best but the quantity of action more than makes up for this and Le gives a fun and energetic performance as always. A couple of Filipino cinema regulars like Jim Gaines and Romano Kristoff show up and the expected stolen ENTER THE DRAGON theme plays out once more.

The director seems obsessed with Bruce Lee and includes loads of random photos of him at every opportunity. Time is taken out for a brutal cock fight and a climax in which Lee squares off with a western fighter which is directly copied from the Chuck Norris fight in WAY OF THE DRAGON, right down to the hair pulling.

Warning: spoilers

Charmingly awful Kung-Fu caper which suggests a Deadly Weapons era Doris Wishman on vacation at a seedy Manila hotel and reluctantly having to direct a film starring two Bruce Lee impersonators in order to get the money to fly back home. It features Jack Lee as a student of his more famous namesake who has been entrusted with ‘the secret book written by Bruce Lee before his death'. Travelling to Manila in order to help out at a friend's Kung-Fu school, Lee runs foul of local gangster Miguel (played by a token Westerner) who wants the book at all costs, containing as it does Bruce's Kung-Fu secrets. In spite of the action packed plot, director Bill James achieves the incredibly cheapskate feat of managing to set most of the movie within a lobby, a room and a lift at the same hotel. Numerous scenes of Lee fighting off gangs of Miguel's thugs ensue; as the soundtrack wildly jumps from a bootleg version of the theme from Enter the Dragon to a bootleg version of the theme from Diamonds Are Forever, but only when he is being seduced by one of Miguel's floozies does Lee show real fear. Towards the end of the film Miguel's thugs hit upon the idea that rather than ending up black and blue as a result of unsuccessfully fighting with Lee, it might just be easier to shoot him dead. So they do, leaving Lee's Kung-Fu teacher friend (who conveniently also happens to be a Bruce Lee look-alike) to seek revenge. The soundtrack in the version on review always seems to run slightly slower or faster than the picture meaning that sound effects like slaps and chainsticks being used are all out of synch and the average dialogue scene involves characters talking with their mouths closed then start moving their lips to deliver nothingness.

While the last third of the film is rather routine (despite being inter-cut with footage of cock fighting for no particular reason), the first hour is rich in effortlessly surreal touches such as a scene where a woman being strangled on a bed abruptly cuts to her drowned in a bath, the revelation that one of Bruce Lee's secret Kung Fu techniques involves nothing more than pulling an opponent's trousers down and the bad guys not only tying the hero to a chair by also tying his legs behind his head….for several hours! The IMDB lists 1984 as the year of production, yet the furnishings and interiors suggest a decade earlier; either that or a certain Manila hotel hadn't been refurbished in quite a while.

This has been released on a value for money DVD which crams 4 low-rent Kung-Fu titles on the same disc. Bootleg quality abounds, but Big Boss 2 and Bruce Lee's Deadly Kung Fu are entertaining for the all the right reasons while this and Dick Randall's The Clones of Bruce Lee well

Never was a more truthful quote spoken by the movie's head honcho, Miguel, played with corny aplomb by b movie veteran Romano Kristoff, when his goons explain that the five or them were defeated by one man. That one man is Jack Lee and he has a secret book written by the late Bruce Lee that Miguel is dead set on obtaining through any means necessary. At one point, Miguel kidnaps Jack Lee and ties his legs behind his head to try and get him to reveal the location of the movie's MCO( most coveted object). Not receiving the answers he wanted, Miguel leaves Jack in the room with a guard outside. Gratuitous scenes of real life roosters killing each other are mixed back and forth with Lee's attempts to break free and his eventual escape. At around 64 min in, Jack Lee dies and the titular character sets out for vengeance. Bruce Le is unlikable in this film with his macho posturing, smug attitude, and him valuing money over the life of animals. Usually Bruce is quite likable in his films. Jack Lee steals the show as the 2nd main lead. He exudes so much charm and charisma that you can't help but like him. He shows so much nervousness around leading ladies Karla Reynolds and Micci Clark that it completely draws you into the scenes that they appear together in. Not to mention Jack Lee and Micci Clark have great on-screen chemistry. The movie is quite good until Jack Lee dies and then it is a waste of time. Still, I recommend this flick for the charming Jack Lee and the two leading ladies. PS. It might not be true but I think that the director must of had a crush on Romano Kristoff, what with all of those long, lingering shots of him working out and all.