Fist of Fear, Touch of Death

1980 "The 3 Greatest Masters!"
2.4| 1h26m| en
Details

A television reporter interviews fighters and promoters about Bruce Lee in preparation for a tournament to claim the title of “Successor to the Bruce Lee legacy”. Footage from Bruce Lee's films and interviews are repurposed in pseudo-documentary style.

Director

Producted By

Aquarius Promotions

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Reviews

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Comeuppance Reviews A big fighting tournament is taking place at Madison Square Garden. Many fighters are showing off their various skills. Why is this going on, you ask? It's because everyone is trying to find the "possible successor to Bruce Lee". Not the actual successor, the POSSIBLE successor. The event is MC'd by a man with a name that has interesting historical connotations, Adolph Caesar. In the audience for no particular reason (though we're happy he's on board) is Fred Williamson. As the fights in the ring go on, we're treated to a variety of clips from a myriad of different sources, trying to recreate the life of Bruce Lee, and people that knew him talking about him (and, not so subtly, talking TO him using horrendous editing). Is this film a crass cash-in exploiting the greatness of Bruce Lee and insulting his memory for a quick buck? Find out today! This movie is a crass cash-in exploiting the greatness of Bruce Lee and insulting his memory for a quick buck. Hopefully this saves you some time. Now, this isn't really a movie per se, as it's not linear, and is cobbled together footage from a patchwork of sources, with a few new bits filmed to try to glue it all together. All the old footage, which appears to have been re-dubbed, is boring and painful to sit through. The newly-filmed footage isn't without some merits, however flimsy...There are some cool NYC locations of the day which we always love seeing, and we even see some movie marquees that are playing Apocalypse Now (1979), Animal House (1978) and 10 (1979). Fred Williamson brings his charisma but he's obviously confused as to why he's there so he's on autopilot. But even The Hammer on autopilot is more entertaining than most actors. There seems to be an inexplicable running gag where people keep thinking he's Harry Belafonte. Why this is, no one can say. A funky score also underlines these scenes.But women jogging in the park and being accosted by street toughs and then being saved by one of Bruce's pretenders to the throne seems to be the sole bit of creative thought put into this trainwreck of a movie. Bill Louie plays "Kato #2". That's right, a guy dressed as Bruce's character, with the name "Kato #2". As mind-numbingly stupid as that is, Louie gets a pass because he was in one of our favorite movies, the awesome Death Promise. So all is forgiven. In these "saving the joggers" scenes, Ron Van Clief actually shines as well. You gotta love that winning smile. But though this movie technically (by default) has Bruce Lee, Fred Williamson and Ron Van Clief, they've got some stiff competition in Fred the Flying Fat Man.Ah, Fred the Flying Fat Man. He had such dreams. We'd love to be privy his thoughts. How a morbidly obese vagrant with sleep apnea and diabetes could think he could genuinely become the new Bruce Lee is beyond comprehension. Yes, this is real. If anyone out there has any information on said Flying Fat Man, do leave a comment today.But the big question here (especially when characters are talking to stills and spliced-together footage) is: WHO DID THEY THINK THEY WERE FOOLING? True Bruce fans aren't going to accept this tripe. Casual moviegoers won't care. So what was the audience here? Naturally, the Fred Williamson stuff is the best here, and after suffering through the footage of Bruce's "biography", we were screaming for Adolph Caesar and his famous voice to come back and save us all.So while there are a few decent moments in this plot less exercise, most of it is an endurance test that would test hardened bad movie lovers. If only they made an entirely new movie with Williamson, Van Clief and Louie, then we'd have something here. As it stands now, we really don't.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com
Mike Eder First off the movie is an obvious comedy that knows it is being funny. It IS a funny movie that is a comment on all the fake Bruce Lee movies being done at the time. The violence is comic to start with. Scenes like the eyeballs are played for laughs. Making Lee's voice fem was an obvious joke too, as was his "Samururi" background. The black and white footage IS Bruce as a child actor. Redubbed to be satirically biographical it cuts between the old film and the 70s B Samurai movie in a direct parody of "The Real Bruce Lee". The skits are meant to be funny as are the would be attackers. Their are some real martial arts in the film by excellent practitioners and the point of the whole movie is that you should be yourself. The message is use Bruce to inspire you but be your own self in martial arts and in acting. I liked this very much it's fun cheese that doesn't take itself seriously.
Nothing8900 Everything in the is movie is a 100% true about Bruce lee. Finally we have a film that tells of his; voyage to America with just the clothes on his back, his great grand fathers swordsmen ship, confrontation with the people that know him best, his journey through the early stages of KARATE, death from the touch of death. This movies also finally shows us the real successor to Bruce lee (through a KARATE match).I advice any Bruce lee fan to get this movie immediately. It really shows you how great of a man Bruce lee was. Since Adolf Caesar really founded Bruce lee (and he was immediately famous) its no wonder that he is as big as he was. I mean, there's no way that Bruce would have died of natural causes, it had to be....the touch of death.
tony_phonet When it comes to bad movies, some are just plain bad, and some are so bad that they're good. Sometimes they are so bad that they become "good" but quickly become bad again because they're so stupid, and very few become good again because they're so terrible. This movie, however, doesn't make it back up the hill. Although this seems like a well-intended tribute to Bruce Lee, it's inaccurate to the core. I personally found some of this misleading info to be funny at first, only because I couldn't believe that someone could be so stupid, but the rest of the movie just dragged on and got boring and annoying. I was never able to watch this whole movie in one sitting. Although as a Bruce Lee fan, I wasn't offended (since I knew the truth), I just kept thinking to myself as I was watching and hoping it'd get better "Oh my gosh... the writers need to be shot."