Enter The Dragon

Enter The Dragon - If you like your movies to include a load of ass-kicking, then Enter the Dragon is the film for you. This film did for Bruce Lee what Rebel Without a Cause did for James Dean - it made a young actor who died a cult icon. This was Bruce`s breakthrough film, because it finally made him a star in America. Tragically he never lived to see it.

Back in the early 1970s, the martial arts genre was rarer than a sober Irishman. You had Kung Fu on T.V and that was it. The closest it came on film were Kirosawa`s samurai films. Then Bruce became a star in Hong Kong by laying down smackage in 3 cheap, but violent action flicks - The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon. They are still groundbreaking, because they show breathtaking, lightening-fast fights without the aid of wires or digital effects.

Enter the Dragon also achieves this. It is basically a James Bond film with kung fu. If this had been one of the films Jackie Chan makes now, there would be unfunny laughs, Chris Tucker as Williams and wirefighting all round. Thankfully, it is played straight by just about everyone. The story is basically an excuse for Bruce`s Shaolin monk (named Lee) to fight people. Our hero has to infiltrate an island run by a one-handed criminal who runs a drugs and prostitution empire by entering a martial arts tournament. He is helped by army buddies John Saxon and Jim Kelly, the former with mob debts and the latter a fugitive.

It may not have much story-wise and it hasen`t aged too well (want proof? Check Jim Kelly`s afro), but it is still the greatest martial arts film of them all and Bruce Lee dominates the action, wether he beats up Bob Wall without breaking a sweat or fighting dozens of guards with a stick, 2 bamboos, a nunchuck or his bare hands. This urinates over Rush Hour from the Empire State Building.