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In the hype for a big karate championship bout between Louis Neglia and John "Cyclone" Flood at Madison Square Garden, a TV Anchorman named Adolph Caesar tries to tie the match into the controversy stirred up with regards to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Bruce Lee and whether or not this karate match-up will crown his successor.

I gave this a rating of 4, one point each for the ways in which this succeeded in entertaining me. Point # 1 was awarded for the karate championship match itself which was exciting if a little too short-lived. Point # 2 was for the archival footage featuring Bruce Lee which was cool to see even if it was horrendously dubbed. Point # 3 was for the footage taken from the "Samurai" film which amused me with its utter lack of convincing effects combined with some otherwise intense and gory fight scenes. Point # 4 was for this film's sheer audaciousness as it preposterously tries to tie itself and a straightforward karate match at Madison Square Garden to the enduring legacy left behind by Bruce Lee succeeding in making me laugh and shake my head in utter amazement at this ludicrous presentation unfolded before my eyes.

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.

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!

I saw part of this movie, before, where I used to work. It looked phony. Like a curious moron, I got the dvd at borders. What a mistake! That martial artist, Aaron Banks is so full of sh*t with his theories on Bruce Lee dying from Dim Mak, the touch of death. They didn't have me fooled for one second when they made it look like he conversed with Bruce Lee. I could tell those were clips from his show, Longstreet, dubbed over. This movie also sucked because of their portraying Bruce as a child(from his earlier films)and made his voice sound like a total wussy. His father didn't even look like that in reality! I wasted about $8 in Borders gift cards on this piece of junk. On the lighter side, it would make great satire material for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 type show! I would call it "Kung Fui Theater"(Kung Phooey).

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