Conspiração Bruce Lee

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.

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

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

When you look at the cover of this dvd there's a giant pic of Lee on it.

So you'll think this is going to be a great martial arts flick, but its not.

You don't even see him fighting!!!! They talk about a great karate championship, but the only thing you see is the finale and they don't do karate they are BOXING! Everything here is a lie, they even try to let you think that Lee's great grandfather was a famous samurai...this movie has nothing to do with martial arts, avoid it at all costs! if you see it in a store, hide the box so no one can buy it, this is total crap!!!!

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!