The Clones of Bruce Lee

Some people have considered this lesser known film to be the worst Chinese movie ever made and I wholeheartedly agree. Why is to easy to find Chinese movies online? Anyway, Bruce Lee was such a massive icon there was actually an entire genre devoted to imitating him. Let's just say imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery in this case. This movie features a guy who, well makes clones of Bruce Lee. We get a lot of pointless scenes showing them fighting.

The movie's plot just seems to be all over the place. About halfway through, they go to a beach where naked women are. I guess if I was more of a pervert, I'd enjoy this more. They fight this villain who wants to, you guessed it, take over the world ("of course!"). He turns people into metal to use as soldiers. It's as stupid as it sounds, but at least it's not worse. *1/2

This movie is actually so bad. (Direction, acting, effects, even the fighting) that it has reached some sort of cult status over here. You should check it out. It's funny as hell.

HA HA HA!!! Man, I wish they could move that gas mask or take those 70s shades off. Is that Bruce Lee times three?

This movie definitely was shoddily done, but the dubbing is kooky and the story is hilarious. At times, I think there were four Bruces. There is so much to say during the beach scene seeing two Bruce wannabes sporting speedos and one of them warning him to stay away from the naked babes on the beach and that they'll "eat you alive". WHY are they avoiding the women? Of course, throw in gratuitous nudity to attract attention. The kung fu isn't up to Shaw Bros. level, but it's decent. Dragon Lee is the best one as Bruce number one and swipes at his nose so often, you'd think he did lines in between takes. The scientist guy is played by guy who was head boss ("What I like, I get. And I want that restaurant!!!) in Way of the Dragon. Head Ham award gose to the evil drug lord who you have to credit him for being a big thinker. Not only does he want to be top drug lord, but be impressed by his "We will rule the world" speech.

This is far from being good in quality, but a lot of fights, very kooky premise, and high in kampiness value makes Clones a fun one to watch.

THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE is perhaps the ultimate Bruceploitation film, featuring no less than three Bruce Lee imitators (and two of those are the hard-working Dragon Lee and Bruce Le). It starts off with the depiction of the death of the real Bruce Lee, only to have his body claimed by a mad scientist (Jon Benn, who starred in CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER and WAY OF THE DRAGON) who proceeds to replicate three clones from it.

This action-packed tale then follows each clone as he engages in training routines before being sent off on special missions, typically performing assassinations and the like. Eventually they turn on each other. The whole thing was brought to you courtesy of infamous exploitation director Dick Randall, whose CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER is a mini masterpiece of its type. THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE isn't, but it's still a must for trash fans.

There's no denying the slapdash nature of this film, which was shot in Thailand and the Philippines. While the plot is more involved than your regular kung fu outing, the fight scenes feel very laboured and predictable; the Bruce Lee imitators spend too much time copying Bruce Lee instead of showing much in the way of real skill themselves. I feel they did better work elsewhere. Still, on the other hand, the viewer does get treated to Bolo Yeung (DOUBLE IMPACT), gratuitous nudity, training scenes set to stolen ROCKY music, and a general air of ineptness and anything-goes cult appeal.

I saw this film in the early eighties, so my memory of the plot details is pretty hazy. I do recall, however that the clones mentioned in the title not only didn't look very much like Bruce Lee, they didn't look like each other! Also, there was an army of overweight men in diapers who were covered with metallic paint and were supposed to be made out of bronze. Whenever these guys would get kicked or punched a metallic "bong" was heard on the soundtrack to enhance the illusion. The only problem that the effect was ruined by the way their flesh jiggled on impact. I went to a lot of lousy films in those days, but this one got by far the worst audience reaction of all of them(although the place was nearly full!). If they were dumb enough to think a film with a title like this would be good, they deserved to be disappointed. Personally, at the time I thought it was a lot of goofy fun.