Quick recap: Bruce Lee schools everyone with his sick moves.

Word.

Fun (?) fact: Bruce Lee struck Jackie Chan in the face with fighting sticks and to make it up to him, promised that he could work on all of his movies. Lee died before being able to fulfill that promise.

The only move I know

My thoughts: Fighting movies aren’t really my thing, especially after watching Once Upon a Time in China.  I knew Enter the Dragon wouldn’t be as complicated, but I was still weary that the fighting and general ass kicking would get old after awhile. Fortunately, it did not. I think what sucked me in from the beginning was Bruce Lee. I was expecting a kung fu machine, but he was really funny at times and his acting was much more expressive than I thought it would be. Jim Kelly, who played Williams was a delight and I have half a mind to find all of his later films and watch them because he was so wonderful.

As I mentioned, Enter the Dragon is about as straightforward as it gets. Bruce Lee, who played Lee, is on a mission to take down Han, who is involved in everything from heroin smuggling to prostitute murders. The bad guy is a super bad guy, which is nice to just have someone who is evil and doesn’t have baggage as to why he is evil. Robert Wall plays Oharra, another bad guy with shockingly beautiful hair. Every time he was onscreen fighting, he looked like he had just finished a rehearsal set with the Bee Gees, which is actually a really great idea for a movie.

You won’t be Stayin’ Alive when I’m through with you

The only part of the movie that I didn’t love was the ending, when Bruce Lee went into full force ass-kicking mode. I loved the mirror scene, but shot after shot of beating up bad guys just didn’t do much for me. I appreciate how amazing Lee was and even though the effects might be 100% real, they take someone with an impressive amount of skills as well as restraint to pull them off. I can’t imagine anyone else in that role besides Bruce Lee.

Final review: 4/5

Up next: No Country for Old Men