Review of Enter the Dragon (1973) by Allan C — 27 Jun 2015

Bruce Lee is the man, but I do have to say that the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker "A Fistful of Yen" segment in "The Kentucky Fried Movie" has completely ruined me from being able to take this film seriously ("What was that? This is not a chawade.

We need total concentwation." or "These are lost drunken men who don't know where they are, but do care! And these are men who know where they are and care, but don't drink."). That aside and some goofy mugging by Bruce Lee, this film is an absolute martial arts classic.

The story is super basic (the evil Han is hosting a martial arts tournament and Bruce is sent in by a spy agency to stop Han's evil doings) but the story perfectly facilitates lots of kung-fu action.

An honest assessment of this film is that it's pretty dated and actually pretty corny when viewed through modern sensibilities, but despite that, Bruce Lee is amazing! Bruce with the nunchuks. Bruce taking out a tunnel full of henchmen.

And Bruce striding through the crowd to get to Han at the end. Bruce is just awesome and that's what carries the film. John Saxon always seemed like odd casting as one of the three main leads and is passable, even if his martial arts was not.

Jim Kelly however is quite good in role, which led to his underrated film "Black Belt Jones." Look for a young Sammo Hung as the Shaolin fighter Bruce has a demonstration match with in the opening.

Jackie Chan is apparently one of the prison thugs who fights Bruce, although I couldn't spot him. Also, Keye Luke did uncredited dubbing for Dr. Han. The film also earns at least 1/2 a star for the terrific and iconic Lalo Schifrin music.

Bruce's previous Hong Kong films are better demonstrations of his martial arts skills, but this film features an overall better production value and slickness his previous films lacked.