I’ve watched this film plenty of times, but its only on this viewing that I realized Bruce Lee directed and wrote it as well as starring in it! That hasn’t changed how I feel about the film. The story and characters are as superfluous and flimsy as the cardboard Colosseum backgrounds at the end of the film. The first half hour is taken up by shots of Rome’s tourist attractions and awkward humour involving Bruce Lee’s Tang Lung drinking soup and needing the toilet.
Lee makes us wait for his first fight scene…and, as always, it’s another cracking fight scene! We get not one nunchaku, but two nunchakus! Even in contemporary Rome, there’s as excuse for the mafia not to use guns. The film also strains itself to place great importance on Lee’s character. However, this film is all about one fight: Lee v Chuck Norris! It’s one of cinema’s great one-on-one fight scenes, a gladiatorial bout set in the Colosseum. It shows Lee was unparalleled in filming and choreographing fight scenes. A perfect fight scene…and one of the only reasons to watch this film!
HAMMY’s RATING: 3/5
MEMORABLE SCENE: LEE v NORRIS!
MEMORABLE QUOTE: ‘If I ever see him here again…HE WON’T LEAVE ALIVE!’
Click here for my Quick Review of The Big Boss (1971)
Click here for my Quick Review of Fist of Fury (1972)
Click here for my Quick Review of Enter The Dragon (1973)
Click here for my Quick Review of Game of Death (1978)
Hammy Reviews 
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