Review: Brucesploitation flick - Bruce Lee fights back from the Grave - 1976

At least the cover art kicks ass!

Bruce Lee fights back from the Grave

Regi: Doo-Yong Lee

Action

1976

This is the worst kind o Brucesploitation there is. They haven’t even bothered to edit in scenes with Bruce Lee anywhere in the picture. What you get it is lightning hitting Bruce Lees Grave and that’s all…it’s over in like thirty seconds.

The rest of the film regards a Kung Fu instructor tracking down a few thugs which he believes has murdered his friend. He has to fight his way past each and every one of them and eventually finds the mastermind behind it all. It’s kind of a storyline you would expect from Bruce Lee so I guess they got that right. As a matter a fact I think it reminds me a bit of Way of the Dragon. Or perhaps I wanted it to remind me of something so bad I interpreted it that way.

The star of this flick is Bruce Lea, you can’t but be impressed by the innovative ways these guys try to make it seem like this is a lost flick with the genuine Bruce. This and a lot of other films that is. It’s not all terrible but I don’t think there’s a reason for anyone to watch this more than once. It’s rather pointless! I come to think of a quote from another movie – King of the Kickboxers, where the cop and hero of the movie have to watch some genuine death movies. He doesn’t realize that the actions in the movies are for real an comment them to be “like Bruce Lee movies – without Bruce!”. That’s kind of how I feel. The movie would probably have been bad with Bruce Lee in it, but now it doesn’t even have that! Avoid!

2/10

Short films of Jeremiah Kipp

I got a query if I was interesting in reviewing a few genre short films by Jeremiah Kipp. I didn’t think about long, I always thought that writing about flick you know nothing about is the most rewarding. If I could choose I’d write about stuff like this all day long. Short flicks or feature films that almost no one knows something about. I like writing about blockbusters and big budget films as much as the next guy too, but when people send their work to me it’s like Christmas time really. I just love getting stuff for consideration!

Contact

Contact – An about eleven minute long tale. As always, the short flicks are always the hardest to figure out. There’s no time to develop an in depth story with dozens of characters. But there’s not always a need to either. This particular story might revolve around one single event but it’s still pretty intense. I really like the imagery that Jeremiah Kipp delivers. There’s no need for much dialog and the few lines that are in there serve a purpose. I get the feeling that this is an exercise in suspense and it’s a successful attempt at that. At the end I can think of multiple solutions to what this film is really about. Pay attention and I think you will too.

Crestfallen – Short flicks also has the advantage that you can watch them a few times without wasting too much time. Imagine an epic film with a duration of  two and a half hours and that you see that three or four times in a row before you realize what’s it about and what to write about it. It’s an impossible task really! But with this six minute piece it’s different. If you don’t pay enough attention the first time you can easily make up for it right away. Not that the plot is very hard to figure out in the first place. I think it’s very well told using the imagery. There’s not much doubt about the storyline even if it’s not told entirely chronically. Maybe that’s just what appeals to me with this one, which I like very much. The sounds and the music emphasize the imagery very nicely! It’s quite an emotional tale which proves that you really can tell a heartwarming story in six minutes!

Drool – for me this is a very sensual… no sexual piece! It’s about four minutes long and kind of strange to watch. There are basically two bodies rolling around in some sort of gel. It may be a metaphor for something else but I interpret is more or less as a sexual act. I think what we see is the final stage of an intercourse with a mesmerizing orgasm ending. How much can be done I four minutes? Well, it’s not about what; it’s about how! It looks great but to be honest this one is a little too arty for me to enjoy at the fullest. A great play with the imagery though! There’s no dialog at all, and it’s not needed.

The Days God Slept

The Days God Slept – This one is hard to figure out. I mean there must be some morality to it right? Some bottom line, something the film is supposed to tell us. I’m not sure if I get it at all but that doesn’t mean that the ten minute long film isn’t good. I really like it! It shows the same degree of mastering the imagery. There are plenty more dialog in this than all the others short flicks put together. It seems to be a somewhat bigger production and there’s certainly a nice vibe to it. I just wish I could figure out what it’s really about. It obviously has something to do with religion and something else not usually connected to belief in God or a supreme being. There’s this stripper which claims that things are both precisely and not at all as they appear. I think this clue is very important and I based my solution of the movie around that, which, of course, doesn’t mean that I can put my thought into words.

Overall I really like the short films of Jeremiah Kipp! As I’ve said over and over again, the imagery is the strong side of these flicks, the thing that really stands out. There is acting way superior to the acting of most short – amateurish – flicks. This of course means that this is not amateurish at all! It seems to me that Jeremiah Kipp knows exactly what he wants and makes I happen! Very Nice!