Leofwine_draca Well, I've always loved all things trashy, and GAME OF DEATH II is undoubtedly trash. A well-made piece of trash perhaps, but trash all the same. Now, it's rather incredible that Bruce Lee was still making movies nine years after his death, and I was rather incredulous as to how a sequel to GAME OF DEATH could have been produced. In the first film they were struggling with unbelievable doubles and inserting left-over footage from Lee's unfilmed work but just about managed to create a believable (and very popular - hence the sequel) movie.Thankfully GAME OF DEATH II dispenses with the Lee character around halfway through, and I say thankfully because the efforts to which the makers of this movie go to convince us that Bruce Lee has a starring role are incredible and in vain. They even resort to footage of Lee as a child in one segment (a flashback)! The greenhouse fight from the previous movie is reused as are lots of close-ups of Lee's face and the back of a double again. In one scene we see an abbot in a yellow robe in (newly filmed) scenes for this movie, in the next an abbot in an orange robe is acting with Lee from a previous film (ENTER THE DRAGON)! Supposedly they're the same person although the actor and clothes are completely different. You'll have to see it to believe.The reason I love this movie is all the incredible stuff going on in it. It's like the makers weren't even trying to make a realistic film. For instance, at the funeral of his martial arts master, Lee sees a helicopter come down with a cage to steal the coffin! After jumping on to the cage he is shot with a poisoned dart and plummets to his death. Just one incredible scene out of many. Of course this also means we get to see footage of his funeral once again, dragged out of the cupboard since its last airing. At last the use of stock footage is finally over.Enter the film's real hero, Tong Lung. Apart from having an amusing name, Lung lacks Lee's natural charisma but more than makes up for this in his athletic fight scenes which are very enjoyable to watch. The first half of the film has some street fights and assassin attacks which are fairly typical for the genre. The second half sees Lung travelling to a remote palace where he befriends a westerner known as Lewis. Lewis is forever being challenged by other fighters (must get tiring...) and feeds their bodies to his pet lions. Well, one night, Lung is seduced by a naked woman who turns out to be an assassin with a poisoned needle in her ring. At the same time one of the lions jumps through the window to attack and Lung has to fight it. Great stuff.Meanwhile, Lewis is violently murdered by being hanged and stabbed and Lung believes his scarred, one-armed servant is responsible. At around the hour mark he travels to the 'Tower of Death' and from then on the film just becomes constant action, one long martial arts fight after another. After fighting and beating all of the guards above ground (including the servant who has two arms after all - don't ask), Lung ventures into the secret underground lair where he takes part in some fantastic kung fu fighting. After violently beating a room full of trained killers by breaking their bones (cue one scene which rips off ENTER THE DRAGON by having Lung brutally kill a bad guy then pulling a twisted face like Lee did) Lung goes on to fight a warrior credited as "Wildman" dressed in leopard skins (!), then has to traverse a corridor with an electrified floor, battle a hulking guard in orange robe, and finally take on the chief villain, a drug runner who faked his own death in order to get Interpol off his back! I admit it, the film has little plot and is identical to lots of other '70s kung fu movies. What I loved were the well-choreographed martial arts fights with lots of impossibly fast movies and violent bone-crunching action (one enemy is dispatched by having his legs cracked!). The film lovingly slows down at one point to watch Lung jumping through the air, kicking through a huge crate to smash a man's face in. You wouldn't get that in a western film. I love the setting of the computerised underground lair and the way that the fights take place in one interesting setting after another. I like the cheesy dubbing with unrealistic British accents and the trite dialogue the actors are given. If you're looking for a wealth of martial-arts action and not a lot else then I recommend that you give this film a try, as for me it was an unexpected surprise and even more enjoyable than the first!

Thomas Daniel Hansen A mish-mash of archive footage from older Bruce Lee movies, which actually only gives us one original and previous unseen Bruce Lee fight scene. And that is not enough to make it watchable, as the incredible archive fight scenes did it in his other posthumous movie, Game of Death, 1978.The lack of unseen material with Bruce Lee is affecting the plot to focus on Lee's characters brother, Bobby Lo, played by Tae-jeong Kim, who also was stand-in for Lee in Game of Death. The top billing for Lee, and the stylization as a sequel to Game of Death is a misnomer. (Lee's character being named Billy Lo as the only real reference in the movie). Even though it is a production by Hong Kong producer Raymond Chow, who was the producer of Lee's previous Hong Kong movies and co-directed by former Lee accomplished Sammo Hung. It even has Roy Chiao playing a similar character to the one he played in Lee's Enter the Dragon, 1973. And the plot is derived from a original script by Lee. But in fact it unintentionally ends up more as a parody to the genre instead of a tribute. (Jang Lee Hwang and Roy Horan's characters are almost ridiculous cliché) And in that way it should be watched. Which is a shame for Lee's legacy.

Ravenswing Even by the terribly low standard of chopsocky flicks, this is the ultimate POS. From its ludicrous claim to be Bruce Lee's "final film" (hey, if I splice bootleg footage of Bruce into my next vidcam extravaganza, do I get to usurp that status?), to darkened duels with extras in lion suits, to flashbacks of the last scene, this flick leaves no stone unturned to deliver the epitome of bad cinema. Even the alleged awesome fight scenes are trumped by any number of MMA brawls you can gank from YouTube.Honestly, the only cinematic rule this fetid ripoff follows is that of Joe Bob Briggs: if you're going to make a sequel, make it exactly like the original.The only reason I'm not giving this abortion the lowest possible score is that Plan 9 From Outer Space and Last Temptation Of Christ exist.2/10.

tjp91 A handful of critics have awarded this film with positive comments. I don't wish to argue with their opinion, but I strongly disagree. When I first watched this film I was mildly impressed. But after comparing it with other films, particularly with the late master, Bruce Lee I quickly changed my mind. In fact, if it wasn't for the title of the film, I would never have bought it. Game of Death 2 doesn't relate to the original Game of Death, (except it shares one character, Billy Lo.)I was stunned to see how similar Game of Death 2 was compared to Enter the Dragon. The plots have striking similarities: Both Bruce Lee and Bobby Lo are on a mission to avenge a relative. The two locations are similar, in which they both are very isolated and are surrounded by thousands of Blackbelts. There is an element of prostitution in both films (women are sent two the guests rooms in both films.) Both Han (Enter the Dragon) and Lewis's henchman have a hand missing. Their is an underground drug operation in Enter the Dragon, believe it or not, there is one in Game of Death 2. Han has a pet cat in Enter the Dragon, the director has used his imagination and awarded Lewis with a pet monkey! The list continues. Regarding other aspects of the film, such as the script and the acting, I felt it was very poor. It seemed to me that the director was looking for a group of martial artists to star in the film and prayed they could act. On a positive scale, I cannot deny that the choreography is impressive. Although the fighting sequences have strong elements of acrobatics in them, they are none the less skillfully performed. However, as the plot is insufficient, i couldn't relate to the characters, therefore the fighting sequences were more exhibitions rather than having a meaning to the film. In conclusion I would say this film is recommendable to any martial-arts fans, but for those who enjoy a solid action film, with a good storyline and strong characters, I seriously wouldn't recommend this film. My opinions towards this film may seem very bias and one-sided, but when Bruce Lee set a new standard in the martial arts cinema, particularly after his masterpiece: Enter the Dragon, this film failed to rise to these standards. If anything they imitated a truly brilliant martial-arts film, in hope of achieving the same level of fame. In reference to my evaluation, awarding this film a very harsh 1 out of 10, the film is barley watchable, and must be thankful that it had the fighting sequences it did.