Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee (2007)

I am not a particular fan of the martial arts genre or a Bruce Lee idolizer, but I absolutely loved this movie. The fact that it is billed as a comedy and is actually funny, and this one is very funny, underscored for me its subtle ridicule of Hollywood, their formula films and the entire assembly-line style of film making. Hollywood seems to treat Comedy as the Miscellaneous category - if you can't categorize it as a drama, a documentary, suspense, horror, action or history, then it must be a comedy. This one is genuinely funny, instead of yet another billed "comedy" that's really just one more money-grubber's yawn fest.This is also a wonderful but gentle poke at the entire 70's style of film and television, re-creating the tasteless idiocy of that decade's mainstream entertainment offerings, but in a manner that remains nostalgic, affectionate and respectful - like having an old hound dog that stinks just a bit and slobbers all over everyone but we still love him anyway.If you enjoy the Christopher Guest parody movies (I don't; I respect the effort but it's just not easy to get a laugh out of me - yet this movie got plenty) I think you will find this well worth seeing. Even the nudity is so blatantly gratuitous it qualifies as parody. If you're fed up with the standard crappy focus-group-oriented film-by-formula usually offered, you'll like this movie. If you want a good laugh, you'll like this movie. If you have a pulse and a sense of humor, you'll like this movie.

There are very few movies I consider truly bad. I love B grades, I love cult films. I love chop sockies and Japanese sci fi from the 50s and 60s.I can watch almost anything and enjoy it.But there is one thing that is worse than a truly bad film. And that is a truly bad film that actually thinks it is a good film. And that is exactly what we have here. Unfunny, pointless crap that thinks it is clever.And apparently so do a few other people. If you are the vapid sort who finds art in a ordinary object simply because it is contained in a plexiglas cube you too may find this exercise in mundane satire brilliant.But if you are looking for comedy, an irreverent examination of the Brucesploitation phenomena or a martial arts spoof you will want to keep looking and not waste your time with this thief of life.

"You've offended me, you've offended my family!" I just cracked up so hard that my tears just rolled out of my eyes. If I were to tell you that this is one of my best experience at the SIFF to date, then you would probably think I'm out of my mind, unless of course, you've watched this movie. Actor Dustin Nguyen was on hand to introduce the movie since he had a bit part and is one of the invited guests to the festival for the Vietnamese film The Rebel, he shared that this film is actually director Justin Lin's labour of love. Those of us in Singapore would be familiar with Justin's previous movie, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (admit it, you have the Teriyaki Boyz set as your ringtone), and is now currently in production with FF4 (with the return of Vin Diesel and most of the original cast).Finishing the Game sets itself in the wake of Bruce Lee's death, where the production of The Game of Death got hung up, pending how to move the film forward. As we now know, old footages of Bruce from previous movies, and stand-ins were used to try and complete principle photography so that it could still be released and audiences could lap it up when it is all Bruce Lee the master himself taking care of things up along the pagoda. So herein lies the premise for Finishing the Game, as a mockumentary looking for the next possible Bruce Lee stand in.And the process of doing so is genuinely hilarious, playing to various stereotypes and a throwback to the cheesiness (in hindsight of course) of the 70s with the diverse group of actors and actor wannabes turning up for casting and auditioning. In fact, every character featured has a likability factor, and you can't help but to laugh along, and laugh at them. The major favourite of mine is Breeze Loo (Roger Fan), a two-bit Asian actor who's a dead ringer for Lee, and the name being a mimicking of the various "Bruce Lee" incantations that erupted in the video-movie market with Lee's demise, each starring in various action movies copying Lee's signature movements.Watching the "spaghetti" type productions starring Breeze Loo, never fails to bring on rip-roaring laughter from the audience, and the thing is, it's pretty fun! Sung Kang stars as a happy-go-lucky, always smiling Cole Kim, a struggling actor who can't shake off his smiley face, and Raja (MOusa Kraish), who thinks he's half/Chinese. Dustin Nyugen's own role in the movie, Troy Poon, is yet another actor in a fictionalized spoof of 70s detective movies. His role in Golden Gate Guns has to be seen to be believed, and that one-liner of his about doing other people's laundry, makes him a one-liner hit wonder.But it's not all fun and laughter throughout the movie, as underlying it is a very keen look at the Hollywood of the 70s, where "coloured" folk often get sidelined, or cast to play the villains, bit roles, supporting characters and the likes, I mean, a television series like "Kung Fu" with David Carradine in the lead, speaks volumes It's not all that serious actually as it skirts around these issues, but you get the point real quickly, about discrimination and unequal opportunities.All in all, it split my sides good enough for me to warrant a DVD purchase once it's out (has it?). And oh yeah, see if you can spot rapper MC Hammer in it too!

Just saw this movie at VC Filmfest 2007 on 05/03 Thursday night. It was a big surprise that how this movie came out.Justin Lin was born in 1973 --same year as Bruce Lee's death. When I saw this movie,it was so real that You can't believe it was made in 2007 by a director who was just born in that era.All the details were well arranged that you almost forgot it's a mocumentry instead of real footage.According to Justin Lin's answer on Q&A after the movie,this film was shot in 18 working days and under NO BUDGET....it's like WOW!--mission impossible.There were so many actors in this movie and some of them were merely recognizable,like James Franco and Brian Tee or Leonardo Nam. Other major characters shared the scenes evenly and most of them were really funny. I like Meredith Scott Lynn who play the casting director the most,she was the one audience will remember when people talked about this movie.Josh Diamond and Justin Lin wrote the script fill with funny lines and really works.it's a movie totally different from Back Luck Tomorrow or Tokyo Drift.And it proved again--Justin Lin is someone you can expect.