Enter the Dragon

Bruce Lee was the Fred Astaire of chop-socky, and Enter the Dragon represents his finest work.

Even though the movie was, in a lot of ways, a glorious mess, it turned out to be a huge success on just about every level.

If you want plot and thespian displays, well, look elsewhere. For action, you can't top this film.

Ripping entertainment overall, with just enough meat for amateur sociologists.

The movie can be flat-out fun, a sort of carnival of combat that can turn even a sophisticated audience into a group of gawking kids at a Saturday matinee.

The picture is expertly made and well‐meshed; it moves like lightning and brims with color.

Worth seeing for Lee, but still unforgivably wasteful of his talents.

A pop culture gem of a film, watching "Enter the Dragon" is like watching a comic book come to life but without any of the superpowers. Lee's choreography and super hard work/passion shines especially when placed in well-shot locations that take advantage of different fighting scenarios. The entire film crew deliver a piece of work that is rich with culture, colours, music, period pieces from the 70s, and of course, action where the post production sound effects make you feel every bone crushing hit the actors deliver to each other. The film is light on plot, but honestly, the plot is not the focus, but rather, an excusable vehicle to showcase Lee's unprecedented work where the villains get what they deserve and the heroes do their best to reach their dreams. The amount of passion put into the film just leaps off the screen and everybody involved deserves an applause. There is a reason why it sparked the popularity of Martial Arts and helped inspire many others from filmmakers to bodybuilders. I bow my head down to the late great **** I'll make sure to keep my eyes on the prize!

Movie from the 70s, so expect some bad scenes and old fashion. Sometimes the pictures are looking even ridiculous. But the story is not bad and some of the actions scenes are showing great martial art skills.

Hollywood’s first big-budget martial arts movie, and Bruce Lee’s official western coming out party, is a sort of mashup between the era’s noisy Golden Harvest fighting flicks and its hip James Bond action/thrillers, with a hint of blaxploitation thrown in for good measure. Its narrative is split between three perspectives: the grizzled Shaolin fighter (Lee), the traditional suave leading man (John Saxon) and the vain, politically conscious firebrand (karate champ Jim Kelly), with some thematic crossover between roles. They’ve congregated on a small, private island for an invite-only combat tournament to determine the hardest man on the planet, but each has a secret ulterior motive hidden up their sleeve. As does the event’s organizer. Enter the Dragon is a good step-up for the genre, adding a touch of cinematic grandeur and legitimacy to the mix without losing any of its charm. There’s a looseness here that’s pure Hong Kong, an irresistible silliness that almost becomes plausible because it’s played so straight. You’ll snicker at the villain who wields an array of screw-on deadly weapons in lieu of a hand, but you’ll also believe his threat is genuine. We get a few western-isms - the casting of a hand-holdy white hero is the most obvious - but these fit into the tapestry better than expected. There’s overlap between John Saxon’s character and Bruce Lee’s, but neither feels like a second fiddle. This is no replay of Kato in The Green Hornet, where the more electric, adept character is unjustly overshadowed. Enter the Dragon’s leads are presented as equals, with similar goals and unique strengths. Lee dazzles in the action scenes and does the tricky, acrobatic infiltration act, while his counterpart gets chummy with the evil genius and holds his own in the ring. Saxon would probably look pretty adept under normal circumstances - he was partially cast because he holds legit black belts in judo and karate - but alongside an all-world competitive fighter and a bonafide legend, he seems downright clumsy, so it’s a smart idea that his fights depend more on cunning than technique. Without Lee, though, this gamble would’ve been a misfire and who knows how the kung fu landscape would look today. The intimidating power of his personality, and the snap fury of his skirmishes, elevates the whole premise from a simple proto-Mortal Kombat into something more engaging and spellbinding. The Dragon's character arc is a little puzzling - despite a tranquil, poetic introduction, he resorts to a murderous blood rage by the climax - but no one can doubt his conviction, nor his magnetism. The same is true for much of the film; it’s stylish, fiery and nimble, if not always sensible. A fun ride, with an engrossing, sleazy ‘70s underworld vibe and a rousing climactic mirror-room fight... just don’t fret the details.

Eh, a decent enough movie. It was the first one I've seen where Bruce Lee is actually speaking in English. My only issue is that it seems incomplete and that there are scenes missing, but the free for all fights are always great.

Not really my kind of film but it was entertaining. The kung-fu action sequences were exciting. There wasn't enough bloody violence. There was very little gore. It was mostly just people getting punched and kicked in the head. The music and the style are excellent and the athleticism of the stars is outstanding. Shame that the story is a bit confusing and unimpressive and that the pace is too slow.