O Desafio do Tigre

After the death of Bruce Lee, several studios hoped to fool the unsuspecting public into seeing their crappy films. This is because Lee died so young and did so few films that people were clamoring for more. In one case, they took outtakes and old clips and a stunt double and made a 'new' Bruce Lee movie. In another, his name was in the title but the movie was just an opportunistic mess by one of his ex-girlfriends. In MANY others, studios just re-named their actors with names that looked or sounded like Lee's! Actors such as 'Bruce Li' and 'Bruce Le' (from this film) were rechristened for this sleazy purpose--but not a single one of these films I have seen is worth seeing--even if you are just curious. Will "Challenge of the Tiger" be any better?

So how is Bruce Le (Chung Tao Ho) in the film? Well, he is not without talent--his martial arts moves are pretty good--even if his blows often don't even come close to connecting! However, you'll never mistake him for Lee with that mop haircut and aside from being Chinese there's not a whole lot of similarity to the great Bruce Lee. Apparently I am not the only one to think this way, as his career as Le faded and he later dropped this moniker and became a stuntman. I also wonder if perhaps the film might have done better if they'd made Le's helper in this film, Richard Harrison, the star as he was an incredibly handsome man and looked like a Marlboro Man! Sure, he probably didn't know any martial arts but when did that stop some actors in way too many martial arts films?!

This film finds Le in a typical sort of role--a secret agent. And because of this, he's able to travel the world (or at least go to as many places as the small budget allowed) looking for a missing secret formula. Naturally, along the way he gets into a lot of fights and fortunately the baddies never figure out that it would be a heck of a lot easier to just shoot Le and be done with it! So to answer my question about whether or not the film is worth seeing, the answer is no. The film looks amateurish and aside from the nudity (see below), the film never gets very interesting.

As I was just saying, in addition to the Bruce Lee knockoff, this film also features the most gratuitous use of nudity I have ever seen in a movie. During one sequence early in the film, about a dozen topless and completely naked women danced about (often in slow-motion) for no particular reason (get a load of the one drinking from the fountain). I guess the film makers were just trying to give the audience what they thought they wanted! If only they'd considered giving the films excellent plots, good martial arts action and quality directing, writing and acting!

Bruce Le (that's not a typo) stars in an action film, with a script by Bruce Le and Poon Fan. If you're not laughing yet, keep right on walking. There's nothing more to see here.

Still reading? Awesome: Fast cars, faster women, a stereotyped asexual martial artist starring along side a sex-addicted American super-agent named Richard Cannon. Seriously. The first time you see him, he's playing tennis against two topless women. Simultaneously.

Did I say action film? It's a softcore adult film. With kung fu. And Chong Li from "Bloodsport." The acting is non-existent, the dubbing is awful, and the plot has something to do with a formula that can make a man sterile, able to have all the sex he wants with no repercussions. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure. Neither is the movie.

THERE IS NO DOWNSIDE HERE. I saw this on accident, as it came as part of a double feature with "For Y'ur Height Only," starring 2'9" Filipino action superstar Weng Weng. For once, this was a double-feature with everything. And I think this movie was actually the better of the two.

Judge for yourself, won't you? You'll be glad you did.

Bruce Le (not Lee) teams up with Richard Harrison to solve an international crime that takes them in many different location filled with stock music (from major films), nudity, and fight sequence. This is another Dick Randall production that took Lee away from Hong Kong cinema to the heavy schlock cinema. Brad Harris plays one of the bad guy in an unremarkable role. Interesting seeing two former Hercules (Harrison/harris) in one film, and also fun seeing Italian gladiator actor Harris star opposite to Bruce Le. The plot is weak and action star Harrison comes off as a weak agent. The film was called something else, but when Gymkata entered the video arena, it was retitled to this title. Not recommended.

Then it must be because you have not allowed yourself to experience the amazing piece of cinema that is Gymkata Killer. I would hate myself too. I was once like you, and then I saw what can only be described as the best movie, EVER! It's so horribly, terribly, frighteningly bad that it cannot be taken seriously. Once the movie, like a horrible, disfiguring train-wreck, careens forward through the opening scene, you understand that it's actually a dadaistic masterpiece - it is truly a movie whose 'brilliance' is housed in its irrationality and negation of the accepted laws of cinema.

It's like looking through a peephole into a post-apocalyptic world in which a nuclear bomb did NOT go off.

(Cutting edge special effects... On par with the TV's Batman & Robin! -- the live action 1970s series, not the cartoons)

Bruce Le stars in and directs this fairly entertaining kung fu actioner in which he and his over sexed, play boy partner (Richard Harrison) undertake an assignment to recover a top secret formula that could potentially render all men on the planet sterile(!) Shock horror! To make matters more complex, the said formula has also aroused the attentions of a number of other unscrupulous parties including a group of communists led by the one and only Hwang Jang Lee.

Cue a plethora of impromptu fights, breasts aplenty (including a truly mesmerising topless tennis match!), some Bull-Fu(!) and enough testosterone fuelled rippling muscle displays to please even a Mr. Olympia adjudicator!

Yep, all in all, whilst certainly not a classic by any means, it's good harmless B-movie fun and well worth watching at least once.