Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A martial arts movie star must fake his death to find the people who are trying to kill him.
Game of Death is a fascinating but troubled curiosity — a patchwork film assembled around Bruce Lee's actual unfinished footage after his death. The plot, hastily constructed to frame the existing martial arts sequences, is thin and contrived, relying on a double and obvious stand-ins for much of the runtime. Acting is serviceable at best, with the non-Lee sequences feeling perfunctory. Cinematography is competent for the era, with the iconic pagoda fight sequences — the genuine Lee footage — standing out as visually dynamic. Novelty is elevated by the meta-quality of the production (a martial arts star faking his death played by a dead martial arts star) and the legendary final pagoda sequences, but the film is ultimately a compromised artifact. The ending, built around the real Bruce Lee footage in the pagoda, delivers some thrilling martial arts but feels abrupt and disjointed from the rest of the film.