- I don’t normally provide plot summaries in my post-screening thoughts because, hi, that’s what IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes are for but since I think few people will ever end up seeing this… basically, Bruce Lee died before completing Game of Death and so the powers that be eventually decided to finish the film anyway using a variety of stand-ins, lookalikes, and apparently a cardboard cut out to fill in the scenes where Lee was obviously missing. Finishing The Game revolves around trying to find a suitable replacement for Lee through an open casting call. Hilarity ensues, predictably.
- As this movie takes place in the 1970s with an aesthetic and soundtrack to match, it obviously rocks.
- I always have and always will compare all mockumentaries to This Is Spinal Tap for all incredibly obvious reasons. Anyway. This movie is definitely 95% Spinal Tap in tone, but there’s that 5% where you feel like the entire crew is winking at the camera because they’re very satisfied with how clever they’re being. It’s not distracting or obnoxious in a Scary Movie kind of way, but it prevents the film from truly being on par with other great mockumentaries. Of which I cannot think of any at the moment.
- There were some underlying issues with a more serious bent to them that I think could have been more fully developed. In one scene, one of the Bruce Lee hopefuls mentions how his previous acting roles have been largely as the delivery guy whenever someone orders Chinese food on television and they show short clips of these walk on roles on (fake) TV shows to demonstrate just how ubiquitous and confining these types of roles are for Asian actors. I think this could have been a really good launching point for a larger discussion on Asian actors in Hollywood, but it sort of didn’t go anywhere after that. (I mean “larger discussion” within the context of the movie, so through parody and irony, etc.) I think instead they decided to take the route of lamenting that there hasn’t been a big male (American) Asian star since Bruce Lee through the rather literal idea of it being impossible to fill his shoes. I suppose having a big star would make it easier for Asian actors to get cast in roles that don’t stereotype them, but at the same time I feel like concentrating on the notion of being a blockbuster star doesn’t provide the same sort of insight as a closer look at Asian actors in Hollywood in general might have.
- Speaking of being irreplaceable, one of the guys who auditioned for the role was a doctor named Raja; when they spoke with him at his hospital, he was wearing a name tag that said “Moore M.D.”. Raja Moore. Just as no one could fill Bruce Lee’s shoes, Roger Moore was never going to fill Sean Connery’s as James Bond.
- There were four guys dressed in yellow Bruce Lee track suits at our screening. That was pretty cool.
- Notable cameos:
- Ron Jeremy — Plays the lead male in a porn film that one of the wannabe Bruce Lee hopefuls accidentally finds himself cast in. This is a stretch for Jeremy, I’m sure.
- M.C. Hammer — No, seriously. Plays a manager specializing in representing non-white actors. I believe his slogan was something like “Putting the colour in Hollywood since 1970.”
- James Franco — Plays the partner of one of the other wannabe Bruce Lee hopefuls on the nine-episode Starsky and Hutch-esque television show they co-starred in. This seemed pretty random until I read the program afterwards and realised that Justin Lin also directed Annapolis, starring James Franco. Have I ever mentioned I really love James Franco? It put me in a frame of mind to order Freaks & Geeks.
- There was one hilarious scene where the director and the casting director are looking at a wall of head shots trying to decide which people to ask back for a second reading and the casting director basically admits that she picks based on whether or not she’d fuck the guy or not. The director sort of stares at her in disbelief so she starts going into greater detail that she’d totally fuck Guy X if she had had a couple of drinks and so the director, understanding slowly washing over his face, asks her who she’d fuck if she was sober, so she points out Guy Y. Eventually she turns the tables on him and asks him who he’d fuck and he starts getting really into the game, pointing out that he’d fuck Guy Z without even requiring that Guy Z buy him dinner first.
- There’s one character, Breeze Loo, who is actually already a Bruce Lee knock-off but is auditioning for the part anyway. There is a short clip of one of his films at the beginning of the movie and as he’s having a showdown with the Bad Guy, the Bad Guy spreads his arms and reveals two giant swastikas embroidered onto his sleeves. Breeze Loo says to him “I see you have joined the Nazi Party” and then the title of the film comes up: Fists of Führer. I DIED, OMG.
Finishing The Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee
Kind of superficial but pretty hilarious nonetheless.
IMDB Plot Synopsis Bruce Lee's shocking death left legions of stunned fans and a legacy of 12 minutes from his unfinished Game Of Death. Undeterred, studio executives launched a search for his replacement chronicled here through the eyes of five aspiring thespians who find out what the real game is.