Bruce Lee and I (1976) User Reviews (4)

Exploitative crap

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 19 October 2008]

This is a terrible movie and is just one of many martial arts films with the name "Bruce Lee" in the title to sucker unsuspecting fans into theaters. Since Lee died while very young and he'd only made a handful of movies, sleazy film makers claimed to have never before seen footage of Lee or have the inside scoop. As a result of it being rushed into production to cash in on Lee's reputation, there really is nothing particularly good about the film--especially the boring and unlikable story. However, some of the martial arts action isn't all that bad--however, it's nothing like the real Bruce Lee's work and Danny Lee looks nothing like Bruce. No matter--at least his real last name really was Lee!

In this film, Lee's reputed mistress, Betty Ting Pei, tells her side of the story of her involvement with him, though it sure seems to be of dubious voracity--especially since it almost completely whitewashes her own sordid life (not mentioning the chemical addiction or suicide attempt). She first claimed the movie was all true, then recanted and now claims it's partially true. Yeah, whatever. The bottom line is that the film isn't a martial arts film, per se, but struggles under an incredibly dull and impossible to believe script. Lee comes off as a philandering jerk and Pei comes off as a self-destructive hooker--not exactly stuff fans of Lee want to see!!

There are some particularly bad moments in this bad film. I loved the "love scene" (even though, according to the movie, they never slept together--despite her being a call-girl!!) because instead of having sex, they jump up and down on the bouncy bed and it's all filmed in slow-motion!! I also liked how the film was very nationalistic and there were several scenes where Lee supposedly beat up dumb foreigners or Chinese people who discriminated against their own people.

Overall, there was absolutely no reason to make this film. It was purely created to exploit the memory of Bruce Lee. And, if you ARE going to do some sort of unauthorized biography, using Betty Ting Pei's recollections is dubious, at best, given that she was a drug addict and is mentally ill--yet you base an entire film around her life and recollections of Lee. A mess and hardly entertaining at all--though I did like seeing the bartender in the final fight scene.

Bruce Lee: His Last Days

[Michael_Elliott · 4 December 2009]

Bruce Lee: His Last Days (1976)

* (out of 4)

This Shaw Brothers production has become quite controversial over the years because no one, other than Bruce Lee and Betty Ting Pei, really know if it's true or not. There have been many conspiracy theories to what really killed the martial arts superstar but many put the blame on Pei who plays herself in this bio pic that tells about her relationship with Lee (Danny Lee). I can't say I'm a Lee expert so I really don't know too much about his personal life but hopefully it was a lot more exciting than this film. The version I watched was the English dub, which was also P&S so I'm not sure if the original version would be better but I seriously doubt it. What we have here is a pretty weak little film that doesn't manage to do anything except bore the viewer. We have several martial arts scenes but the majority of them are badly staged and come off rather funny. Danny Lee gives a pretty performance as Lee, although the screenplay really doesn't give him a lot to do. For the most part he plays Lee as a practical joker and I think these scenes come off as the most interesting in the film. Danny Lee is able to bring out this comic side of the legend but how much of this side is true is something I don't know. His fighting scenes are rather boring but again, this has more to do with the way they are staged. Pei on the other hand isn't very good playing herself. I'm really not sure what it was but she came off pretty fake from start to finish as if she was really wanting to show herself in a certain way and didn't want to steer off of that. I'm not sure if that's fair to say but that's the way she came off. The film runs just under 90-minutes but there are very few interesting marks. I'm really not sure what the point of the film was as the film never knows how to look at Pei, her relationship with Lee or even say much about the legend himself. In the end it comes off as something incredibly boring, which makes it rather worthless when there are better documentaries, bio pics and Lee's own movies out there.

Shame on Betty!

[lcraine780 · 1/10 · 24 February 2005]

I am in the middle of watching the film. I had to change the channel it's so disgusting! I am so upset to even think Bruce Lee was cheating on his wife and that a film was made about it! It's a ridiculous film that tarnishes Bruce Lee. He may have had problems but, nothing will lead me to believe he betrayed his wife. He may have been close to Betty but, men and women can be close without things getting out of hand. It's just a film that makes Betty out to be this great lover that even the Master Bruce Lee couldn't deny. She seems the type that throws herself at powerful men and when they deny her, she waits until they are most vulnerable to strike at their reputation. His being dead couldn't have made him more vulnerable! I saw the title and was interested only because I wanted to see what had happened to Bruce. I was not expecting this mockery of a film!

Unwatchable

[JohnSeal · 14 December 2003]

Perhaps the original Chinese language, Shawscope version of this film is better than the horribly pan and scanned, English dubbed version recently aired on Showtime. Doubtful, though, as this features unimaginative and unexciting martial arts sequences and the unappealing presence of Betty Ting-Pei, whose hardknock life is the primary focus of this purported tribute to Bruce Lee. Simply wretched.