SpunkySelfTwitter
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Leofwine_draca
A film which successfully manages to tell the life story of superstar Bruce Lee in an interesting, exciting way; not a bad effort considering the dozens of low-budget similarities which followed in the '70s after the death of the Chinese legend. DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY differs somewhat by including a number of purely fictional moments but these also make the story a bit more surprising to established fans of the actor who already know his life story anyway. In the end, the film admirably works as both a biopic and an action-thriller, which is no mean feat at all. The action scenes (of which there are plenty, martial arts fans will be pleased to hear) are invariably well-shot and offer maximum hard-hitting violence and cool choreography, with every punch in devastating detail and every kick captured in loving slow motion.Jason Scott Lee), who plays Bruce, may well offer the most noticeable performance in his career; as the kung fu legend he succeeds admirably. The difference from other Bruce Lee impersonators like Bruce Li and Bruce Le is that Jason Scott Lee displays a keen understanding of the factors that made up the man and puts them to use in his performance here, and at times the realism is uncanny. Lauren Holly is also more than adequate as Linda, Bruce's wife, and although a lot of screen time is spent on the pair's developing relationship it never becomes boring. It's also nice to see a substantial and memorable role for Sven-Ole Thorsen as nightmare creature The Demon, after years of playing only supporting roles.The overall effort of the film is to convey the good qualities of Bruce, from his physical prowess to his strong personality and his characteristics of bravery and inner strength. The negative aspects - including his dodgy death - are skipped over, but really this is no great loss. Scenes in which Lee combats racism are excellently done, and the combination of film clips, interspersed with Jason Scott Lee playing Bruce Lee in the process of making his movies, comes off well. Not the best martial arts flick out there, but definitely a commendable and enjoyable one, and perhaps definitive when it comes to Bruce.
Luke Skywalker
Bruce Lee was an amazing man and Jason Scott Lee was pretty convincing as Bruce even though he doesn't really resemble Bruce. He's a little bigger than Bruce and maybe even a little darker (Bruce was part German). His personality is very similar to Bruce even his voice. Besides his similar mannerisms to Bruce, the movie dramatizes the struggles Bruce Lee had to deal with such as racism. I don't know how much of the drama from the film actually happened in real life, but it seems so real that you really feel sorry for him. I know most of the film was made up and even the synopses about the film says loosely based on Bruce.Some of the reviews I've been reading seems kind of overly critical and harsh. I have to agree that the fight scenes for example were too long considering Bruce Lee's philosophy about fighting was to simplify and use the most effective way to come out of a fight. Bruce Lee after all was a street fighter. He started training when he was 13 and not as a young kid because he kept getting beat up in street fights as a teenager. Also, Bruce Lee was an actor since he was an infant. His dad used him in one of his plays. There were many black and white films of Bruce as a kid. So Bruce Lee was a child star and the film focuses more on his martial art abilities for some reason (I guess for Hollywood glamor). Besides ignoring Bruce as an actor as a young kid, I remember reading about his frustration when he was an instructor teaching his martial art style Jeet Kune Do. His students thought there was an ultimate technique but he tried to explain to his students there is no ultimate technique and that you are the one to figure things out for yourself. His students didn't understand it and at one point he closed his schools.Even though this film is a made up story about Bruce, this isn't the only biopic that's not accurate. Many biopic films focus more on the dramatization than actual events for artistic reasons. Filmmakers are artists as well remember. The soundtrack to this film is excellent. I enjoyed this film simply for the fact Bruce Lee was one of a kind man besides just a martial artist. He is such an influential icon that I can't imagine the movies we watch these days (especially with actions films) would've become without him.
poe426
Happening across the book THE TAO OF BRUCE LEE by Davis Miller brought back some fond memories: memories of seeing THE GREEN HORNET teleseries when it first aired, and being amazed by The Hornet's sidekick, Kato, as he took out villain after villain with what seemed to be almost supernatural abilities (but which clearly were NOT: the punches and kicks had a BELIEVABILITY about them, a verisimilitude lacking in most television and motion picture slugfests); memories of the hot summer days, not very many years later, spent slouched down in my seat watching this same Human Dynamo dispatch an assortment of villains up on The Big Screen, punctuating each kick and punch with an ear-splitting scream or his trademark howl. "Soon I was lost in the thunder," writes Miller. "I'd bathe in dreams and in lightning." Much has been made of Bruce Lee's alleged fighting ability; even Miller seems to climb atop the fence by the end of his book. (He recounts discussions with another martial artist, full contact heavyweight karate champion Joe Lewis, that would suggest another book might be a good idea: if anyone's been overlooked long enough, it's Joe Lewis- and of Lewis's ring skills there's little doubt: I saw him fight twice, and he was MOST impressive, even against much bigger opponents. I read somewhere that Bruce Lee himself once referred to Lewis as "the greatest fighter on the face of the Earth." How's THAT for an endorsement?) This movie, however, is about as true to life as any of the other exploitation movies that literally followed in his wake. Lee was all too human (as his death attests) and had his flaws (unlike the rest of us): in the book HONG KONG BABYLON, it's revealed that the woman in whose bed his body was found was the girlfriend of a Triad boss. But the fact remains that Bruce Lee was- and IS- an inspiration to millions- myself included. This movie does him a great disservice.
freemantle_uk
Dragon is a semi-fictionalized bio-pic of Bruce Lee, the most famous martial artist and one of the most famous film stars of all time. It tells the story of Lee's youth in Hong Kong, before going to America where he is a dishwisher, goes to university, meets his wife Linda, sets up a successful school, writes his book on the philosophy of material arts and becomes a successful actor in Hong Kong before dying at the age of 32.This film is based on Linda Lee's book and she was involved with the production, but this film does have a artistic license with the events of Lee's life, especially of the inner demons he has to fight and some of the fight that Lee fought.This is the only Hollywood film that I am aware of that looks at the life of Bruce Lee. As well as the fight scene which were done with relish, the film goes deeper then that. There is the obviously love story between Bruce and Linda, there is the philosophy of Bruce Lee and his style of material arts which he developed and there is the fact that Bruce Lee had to battle against racism in America and the politics of the film industry. There were moments of comedy as well, which were decent for a small laugh.Jason Scott Lee (no relation) and Lauren Holly both offer good performances in this film, but I think Rob Cohen, the director of later hits the Fast and Furious, xXx (terrible film) and the Mummy: Curse of the Dragon Emperor, did his best work with this film. He shows that he could easily direct fight scenes and able that he could balance it out with personal drama.If you are interested in Bruce Lee or material arts this film is worth a look.
