This listing is for Real Bruce / Fist of Fear VHS Bruce Lee VHS Video Tape Box Set.

Actors: Bruce Lee, Fred Williamson, Ron Van Clief, Adolph Caesar, Aaron Banks

Directors: Matthew Mallinson

Writers: Matthew Mallinson, Ron Harvey

Producers: Terry Levene

Format: NTSC

Rated: R - Restricted

Studio: Simitar Ent.

VHS Release Date: February 20, 1997

Run Time: 82 minutes  

This has to be one of those intentionally bad films. They mislead you by saying it's about Bruce Lee's career. Pretty much everything is fake, but they didn't really try to hide this fact. The setting is the 1979 World Karate Championships at Madison Square Garden where the successor to Bruce Lee is supposed to be determined as a result of media attention. Bruce Lee actually died several years before. Before you know it, they go to the halftime show that depicts Bruce's early days and his great grandfather, who was one of the best samurai swordfighters of the 19th century. The flashback of Bruce's great grandfather in color is most likely re-dubbed scenes from a fictional film set in ancient China,not the 19th century, where the martial artists have unrealistic abilities. The scenes depicting Bruce's early days in black and white have nothing to do with the karate lessons that the poorly dubbed dialogue is talking about, since the characters just sit around and do nothing the whole time. Anyway, everyone knows samurai are not from China or the 19th century. Adolf Caesar mentions Bruce Lee as the king of kung fu in the beginning, but in the flashbacks and other parts, they say that Bruce does karate, which is also from Japan and not China. A karate tournament that happens every year hardly seems to be appropriate in determining the succesor to Bruce's title, especially since the championship fight that lasts only two rounds features two fighters who are probably no better than the couch potatoes in your local martial arts class. Perhaps even more insulting than a karate match resembling a boxing match determining the king of kung fu title is that the suggestion that the winner might inherit Bruce Lee's supposed curse, the touch of death. At least the main characters had the decency to conclude that the event could not live up to Bruce Lee's legacy.

The convesations with Bruce Lee are two or more scenes of a person alternated between each other, with the words edited and entirely different backgrounds. When Bruce is supposed to be showing Aaron Banks his new move, they simply cut to Aaron Bank's face and play some fake karate noise in the background. The two of them don't even wear the same clothes throughout the whole conversation. The fight scenes where Ron Van Clief and Bill Louie beat up sex crazy street gangs teaming up on women joggers in parks are entertaining, but not very impressive. The main events are skinny guys in pajamas sparring with each other, rather than the promised highlights from Bruce Lee's career. The demonstrators need protective gear for kicks, but if Bill Louie tosses someone's eyes to the crowd, it's just part of the show. Aaron Banks demonstration of the touch of death or vibrating palm turns out to be nothing more than breaking a board with his fist. Fred Williamson is supposed to be starring with Bruce Lee, which of course is no longer possible, but he doesn't even do any fighting in this film. And his "girlfriend", who looks like she got a face transplant and had all the color bleached from her skin, begs him to satisfy her. Why would Fred be sleeping with someone he doesn't want to have sex with? He gets mistaken for Harry Belafonte, just like how every Chinese film ever made happens to be about Bruce Lee in this movie. In some versions, there is a Casper the Ghost cartoon in the special features, which is apparently just for the sake of having special features. Even though it's a cheap film, there's no excuse for the Chinese samurai and other blatant inaccuracies. After the tournament is over, Adolph Caesar says it's good that Bruce can no longer be beaten and asks "why should we try to topple his legacy", which is exactly what this film is doing.

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