Enter the Dragon

Back in the good ol' days, my big brother - a HUGE fan of "Karate movies" - would take me (every other weekend) to the legendary State and Lake theater to see all of the so-called "low budget" martial arts films that many in society (during that time) were tempted to wrinkle their noses at, but which soared, nonetheless, in the urban communities of America. And it had been while I was seated in the middle row at the iconic State and Lake (on the said movie date day) that I'd been given my very first introduction to a man who would eventually stake his claim on a place in my heart forever: the great Master of Jeet Kun Do himself, Bruce Lee.

Yes, it was Enter the Dragon, a martial arts magnum opus and National Film Registry inductee (in wh...

In British-administered Hong Kong, "Braithwaite" (Geoffrey Weeks) seeks to engage the services of renowned martial arts expert "Lee" (Bruce Lee) to help the authorities thwart the heroine running activities of local, gloved, kingpin "Han" (Kien Shih) - who looks like a man straight out of "Dr. No" (1962). Luckily, this villain is organising a tournament on his island and that might provide for an excellent opportunity to bring the man down. "Han" is no fool, though, and has his own henchman "Oharra" (Robert Wall) and John Saxon's accomplished fighter "Roper" and his pal "Williams" (Jim Kelly) are also there to be contended with. Now, it isn't really fair to judge this too harshly fifty years on. It was groundbreaking at the time, offering a...

Really fun martial arts action-thriller with Bruce Lee doing great work as usual in his final film. Not usually a big fan of the genre but still found this thoroughly enjoyable and engaging from beginning to end. 4.0/5