You may or my not know that Bruce Lee movies are a guilty pleassure of mine. There is something about their mix of sploitation, awesome action, and sense of moral decensy that I find very indeering. For movies made so badly, it's amazing that you can still tell that Bruce Lee put a lot of heart into them.
This film, "Finishing the Game", is a mocumentary that follows the auditions set for Lee's last movie. Lee died before the movie "Game of Death" could be completed, with very little footage left that actually involved him. So naturally, the big company involved still wanted to milk all that they could out of it and needed a new actor to fill his place. The actual movie "Game of Death", is pretty bad.
This movie, on the other hand, is really good! It captures the look of cheap 70's film stock perfectly. Even the editing and music choices are perfect. And it's amazingly funny!! I honesltly wasn't expecting much out of it and it truly surprised me.
The characters are brilliantly crafted and the way they interact creates some really great dynamics. One of the auditioning actors is an Asian American who's only clame for fame is being a buddy character a short lived cop show with his catchphrase being "I'm not gonna do your laundry!".
It's also a major twist on the concept of a sploitation film. Asian Americans are one of the misportrayed set of people in American cinema and hardly ever have leading roles unless it's in an action setting. It's a mostly comedic movie but the drama totally sets in and the social commentay is lighthearted and enlightening. Wow, I used a lot of big words in this one.
I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 yellow jumpsuits!
-tb
