JMFOX Reviews

The Way of the Dragon (1972)

Way Of The Dragon Review And General Feelings On Bruce's Death

[23 July 2003]

The Way Of The Dragon had the potential to be Bruce's best film in my opinion but was bogged down by the dubbing and acting. But it still stands solid as one great Bruce Lee film and boasts the greatest fight scene ever in my opinion. Bruce plays Tang Lung who travels to Rome to help his family battle local gangsters who are trying to take over their resturaunt. Bruce almost plays a Charlie Chaplin type role here which would later be more fitting to Jackie Chan's slapstick style. Much like the Big Boss the first Bruce fight scene is way into the film but in my opinion this good because it creates a good build up, the nunchuka scene is second only to the one in Fist Of Fury or the uncut Game Of Death. The fight scene in the Roman Colliseum deserves the credit it gets because of one simple reason, its a simple fight, there are no gimmicks, sure its set in the colliseum and the fight is supposed to reflect two roman gladiators but there are no weapons and no sweet talk. It truly has epic scale. The thing that also makes this fight scene work is the end when Tang Lung out of respect covers Colt with his Karate jacket. There may have been better fights since on screen and I havn't seen many Hong Kong films with Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen etc but this is the first great one on one fight, therefore it set the standard.

There will indeed never be another Bruce Lee. I find it fascinating to imagine what Bruce would have done if he had lived, the 80's and 90's would have been very different if Arnie, Stallone, Wiilis, Seagal and Van Damme had Bruce to compete with, Bruce is sometimes critcised for being a bad actor, but i disagree, if anyone has seen his episodes of `Longstreet' or `Marlowe' they will see that Bruce could convincingly carry a dramatic scene given the right script and no dubbing and he oozed charisma, and he showed glimpses of good acting in Enter The Dragon.

Being a Bruce fan i kind of wish that Jet Li would do the films that bruce did or was planning on doing, Jet's early work in Honk Kong like the Shaolin Temple or more recent stuff like Fist Of Legend(remake of Fist Of Fury) and Once Upon A Time In China was very promising and it seemed he was the successor to Bruce but instead now he's doing crap in Hollywood with DMX and Jason Statham. Strangely the mediocre Lethal Weapon 4 is Jet's best Hollywood film, Maybe Jet should do a project with John Woo, it would be interesting and they'd probably get the best out of each other.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

Dragon Review And General Feelings On Bruce's Death

[22 July 2003]

Very Good But Horribly Inaccurate Account Of His Life

If you are watching this as someone who has no knowledge of Bruce Lee's life then this is a good fun action film but someone who knows the history and the story of his life may be dissapointed as this is not at all accurate. And knowing Bey Logan, he must cringe watching this. The film depicts Bruce's early childhood in Hong Kong, his teenage years in the US right way through to his eventual death in 1973. The element that I think drags this film down the most is the mythological side of it, if it had just been a realistic account of his life without the myths and demons, it would have faired much better. There are many innacurate scenes and occurences in this film which understandably makes the film more exciting for mainstream audiences but as a Bruce fan myself i wish they would have stuck to what actually happened. I wish there were more scenes where Bruce was on set of one of his films, like Way Of The Dragon or Fist Of Fury. There could have been more scenes with Bruce with Yip Man or Brandon. There could have been scenes of Bruce being challenged on the street in his infamous street fights, the episode of the green hornet they portrayed i don't think was an actual episode. And Bruce was not injured by the fighter at the martial arts challenge in Chinatown it was when he was weightlifting and pulled his back out. But the fight scenes are well choreographed.

Jason Scott Lee has got his portrayal of the man spot on, he brings the right amount emotion and power to the role, he's clearly done his research on Bruce's mannerism's and got himself in shape for the role as well as training for the fight scenes. Its hard to imagine anyone else who could have played the role, maybe Jet Li who at the time the film was made was 30 and roughly the right age to play Bruce, but Jet spoke very little English. Lauren Holly is equally as good in her role as Linda. The strong portrayals are in many ways successful because of the on set help of the real Linda and Shannon(who makes a cameo as a singer). The music is perhaps the film's strongest part, somehow the main score seems to catch the right emotion of Bruce's death and Brandon's death in 1993. I like the way the film captures the aura of Bruce Lee.

There will indeed never be another Bruce Lee. I find it fascinating to imagine what Bruce would have done if he had lived, the 80's and 90's would have been very different if Arnie, Stallone, Wiilis, Seagal and Van Damme had Bruce to compete with, Bruce is sometimes critcised for being a bad actor, but i disagree, if anyone has seen his episodes of `Longstreet' or `Marlowe' they will see that Bruce could convincingly carry a dramatic scene given the right script and no dubbing and he oozed charisma, and he showed glimpses of good acting in Enter The Dragon.

Being a Bruce fan i kind of wish that Jet Li would do the films that bruce did or was planning on doing, Jet's early work in Honk Kong like the Shaolin Temple or more recent stuff like Fist Of Legend(remake of Fist Of Fury) and Once Upon A Time In China was very promising and it seemed he was the successor to Bruce but instead now he's doing crap in Hollywood with DMX and Jason Statham. Strangely the mediocre Lethal Weapon 4 is Jet's best Hollywood film, Maybe Jet should do a project with John Woo, it would be interesting and they'd probably get the best out of each other.

Rocky IV (1985)

1985 - The Year Of Stallone. Stallone's Peak As An Action Star

[10 July 2003]

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS*****

Semi retired Rocky Balboa is finally enjoying life after winning his title back from Clubber Lang, he is now best of friends with Apollo Creed and has enough money to live a wealthy life and buy Lamboughini's and cheesy 80's robots for Rocky jnr to play with. When a rookie boxer Ivan Drago nicknamed `The Siberian Express' arrives from Russia and dares anyone to defeat him, Apollo takes up the offer to the protests of Rocky and organises an exhibition fight against him. Innevitably Apollo gets his ass whipped and tragically dies in the ring, after hearing the Russian declare "If he dies , he dies", Rocky vows to beat Drago in the ring but insists that it be in Russia in front of Drago's own people and the president of Russia.

Rocky is perhaps the most entertaining although most unrealistic of all the Rocky films, Stallone looks in the best shape of his life here and there is not an inch of fat on him, acting wise he puts in his usual Rocky performance which is fine. There are people who say the Rocky Balboa seems like a different character in Rocky III and IV to that of 1 and 2 but remember that in the first 2 films he was illiterate and Adrian taught him how to read, so in 3 and 4 he's older and has been exposed to the high life. Dolph Lundgren, although not having to do all that much is great as Ivan Drago, he brings the perfect blend of menace and athleticism. Burt Young's role as Paulie has become more and more detailed over the films and here we see him more as Rocky's friend than whining brother in-law. Talia Shire as Adrian is more or less no different from Rocky III providing the mother figure for Rocky to turn to. The Music is one of the highlights of the film, in many ways it is the definitive 80's soundtrack with tracks like `Hearts On Fire'. This makes the training scenes all that more compelling, who doesn't get a shiver down their spine when Rocky is lifting the cart with Adrian and Tony in it. It makes you want to start training yourself. The end fight scene is very entertaining but throws any bit of realism out of the window. Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield must cringe when they watch these scenes because Rocky must take about 100 clear shots to the face but still comes back, in reality the ref would have stop the fight in the 3rd round and declared Drago the winner.

In 1985 Sylvester Stallone was arguably the most famous man on the planet, having Rocky IV and Rambo - First Blood Part II come out in the same year. This was also the peak of Stallone's career, no one can deny he was box office gold. Everything he did from here was relatively dissappointing. A few exceptions like Rambo III, Demolition Man, Cop Land but mostly he made rot like Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot or his latest flops like Driven and D-Tox. My advice to Sly to get back on track is play a villain. Yeah I know he's a villain in Spy Kids 3 but come on that doesn't really count. I say that he should look out for a good script from a good young director. In a future Tarantino film perhaps. I'm sure Quentin could get the best out of him.

**** out of 5

Brilliant

Windtalkers (2002)

This Film Should Be Called `The A-Z Of War Cliches'

[11 March 2003]

I am a big John Woo fan but unfortunately he's dropped to an all time low with Windtalkers. This is a far cry from when he used to make brilliant films like his best work Hard Boiled. The usual Woo themes are here, friendship and honour etc but for once its the action that lets Woo down, the action scenes seem very `staged' and it seems like you are watching an early rehearsal or a TVM. Cage sleepwalks his way throughout the entire film and this ranks as his worst performance since `Wings Of The Apache'. Nearly every war cliche is in place here, the bully who gradually comes to respect his victim, the photo's of the soldier's family back home and the `Hero' refusing to leave a fallen soldier to name just a few. The actors portraying the Navajo's are extremely annoying.

*****************************SPOILERS AHEAD*************************

and anyone with half a brain could guess that at the end either Cage or his Navajo friend were going to die. Like I said before i'm a huge Woo fan, I liked his US films that most people hated(MI2 and Broken Arrow) but this is evidence that maybe he should stay away from war films.

** out of *****