TOWER OF DEATH is not related to GAME OF DEATH in any way, although you probably wouldn’t guess it if you didn’t know. It uses the same techniques to try to give the pretence that Bruce Lee was still alive and kicking – and fails just as badly, if not worse, that Robert Clouse’s effort.

While you can have great fun with GAME OF DEATH with all the inept inserts and dodgy doubling, when it happens in this film, it just seems…sad and pathetic. Actually, they probably used the same inserts (from Fist of Fury, mainly). The “new” footage is gleaned from outtakes of ENTER THE DRAGON (not GAME OF DEATH that has been mentioned elsewhere in these reviews) but the trouble is, most of it has now resurfaced since Warner Brothers insist on releasing ultimate editions of the film on a seemingly weekly basis. What you need to know is that there is NO new footage of Bruce Lee actually fighting in any of this. It’s all done with doubles and look-alikes – mostly Yuen Biao (again). To paraphrase the great Colt Seavers, he’s the unknown stuntman that makes Bruce Lee clones look so fine. Obviously, the footage has also been redubbed to fit in with the new plot. The guy who does the dub job for Bruce Lee (in the original Cantonese print) doesn’t even attempt to replicate Bruce’s voice, and sounds somewhat bored.

So, the plot. Hmm. Shall we gloss over that? You’ll feel better for it, I promise…

The first half an hour (almost to the minute) features the “new” Bruce Lee footage (including the then unseen “monk scene” from the early part of ENTER THE DRAGON but with cutaways to a double with a monk with different coloured robes – sheesh!). Obviously knowing that they couldn’t keep this up for the whole film, they wisely kill off Bruce Lee. So, Tang Lung then appears (as Bruce’s brother) to carry the torch. He’s inherited all of Bruce’s mannerisms, so it’s a promising start.

This does feature some cracking talent on the face of it. Hwang Jang-Lee appears as the baddie (oh no! I’ve given away the twist!) and is as super-kicking as always. Also in attendance is Roy Horan (billed as “Roy Haron” in the opening credits) as the nut-bar par excellence Lewis – who eats raw meat and drinks deer blood. Tasty.

We are treated to perils galore with Tang Lung, including a female gwailo assassin (who isn’t a natural blonde) and the most unconvincing lion ever captured on camera. Fans of Monty Python’s “Scott of the Sahara” sketch will probably laugh their heads off, but others will shake their heads in dismay.

So it’s a complete waste of time then?

Actually, no, not completely. The first half hour is embarrassing with the Lee connection being so desperately established, the second half hour is barely watchable trash, but the film kind of comes into its own in the final half hour. OK, it mutates into a bad ENTER THE DRAGON clone, but to be perfectly honest that’s several steps in the right direction. The final set has all the henchmen dressed in weirdly futuristic silver costumes in a lair that comes straight out of an Austin Powers movie, but at least it’s fun. It’s here that Tang Lung (frequently doubled) takes on Lei Hoi-Sang and Hwang Jang-Lee in a wildly acrobatic and frantic fight scene that actually gets quite exciting. If only the same flair was used in the first hour, we might have had a kitsch classic on our hands. As it is, this is one time I will say it’s OK to skip the boring parts and jump straight to the finale.