Dr. No vs. Enter The Dragon

chrisisall

Okay, Sean did his first, and ETD is clearly a kind of rip off, but how do YOU rank them?
Personally, DN is clearly more rich in character and locations, and it IS Bond after all.
ETD is high-octane adrenaline action all the way. His character is more surface and less developed.
As a martial artist, ETD RULES (plus an amazing soundtrack)!
As a Bond fan, DN is a top entry.

This is so hard... I'm making this up as I go....

I'll call it a tie.
Yeah, I wimped out here. 8-)

Thoughts?

James Suzuki

ETD sounds like a sexually transmitted disease.
I'm sorry you've lost me here, Chris. 8-)

chrisisall

James Suzuki wrote:

ETD sounds like a sexually transmitted disease.
I'm sorry you've lost me here, Chris. 8-)

Not a Bruce Lee fan? If not, then DN is the easy winner here. {[]

hehadlotsofguts

The final fight between Bruce Lee's character and Han is more thrilling, whereas the fight between Bond and Dr No is anticlimactic.

chrisisall

hehadlotsofguts wrote:

The final fight between Bruce Lee's character and Han is more thrilling, whereas the fight between Bond and Dr No is anticlimactic.

It's actually fantastic IMHO if you don't expect a full-on martial arts confrontation, which I never did then. ETD just brought the final fight to an expected martial showdown for the 70's. Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting.... )

Firemass

chrisisall wrote:

Okay, Sean did his first, and ETD is clearly a kind of rip off, but how do YOU rank them?
Personally, DN is clearly more rich in character and locations, and it IS Bond after all.
ETD is high-octane adrenaline action all the way. His character is more surface and less developed.

Why is ETD a rip off?

I actually watched it for the first time somewhat recently. No offense, but I found it painfully slow and dated. I really liked Bruce Lee, but there were too many other characters and they were all terrible actors. (The producers must have felt compelled to include a white guy, a black guy etc)

The whole time I was looking forward to a fight against Chuck Norris..turns out that's a different Bruce Lee movie.

Loeffelholz

I really enjoy ETD...but have always considered it very much a 'B' movie with an 'A' action star---who, with ETD, got as close as he would ever get to the big-time mainstream. Bruce is an agent on a mission; it's a nice vehicle for displaying his astonishing skills, but aside from the martial arts set-pieces, it's saddled with an unfortunate abundance of pedestrian writing and acting. It's occasionally visually fantastic, to be sure, and deserves its status as a cult classic -{

DN beats it for me in every way, except in martial arts kick-assery B-)

EDIT: I do agree that ETD's climactic fight is an absolute blast!

James Suzuki

Sounds like I really need to watch this Movie! Enter the Dragon sounds wicked! -{

Loeffelholz

James Suzuki wrote:

Sounds like I really need to watch this Movie! Enter the Dragon sounds wicked! -{

I do highly recommend it...and guarantee you've never seen anything like it---nor will again.

Chriscoop

I think enter the dragon was groundbreaking on its day and like Bond to spy films, etd is for the martial arts genre, Bruce Lee is obviously a true legend, it has a great soundtrack(70s) and some amazing fight scenes. But its Dr no for me purely because it's bond.

Silhouette Man

I believe that The Man with the Golden Gun was inspired in part by Bruce Lee's films as well.

Chriscoop

Silhouette Man wrote:

I believe that The Man with the Golden Gun was inspired in part by Bruce Lee's films as well.

Yes I can see that.

BIG TAM

I can't really compare them but I love ENTER THE DRAGON. I was five when it was released & the X-rating made it even more exciting. My Dad (a fairly liberal-minded chap) saw it & couldn't understand the rating, thinking it no more violent than... a James Bond film!! Eventually got to see it on VHS in 1983 & wasn't disappointed. Unlike ROLLERBALL, which did disappoint when I eventually saw it the same year.

Matt S

ETD has better fighting and a better soundtrack. Otherwise, I'd pick DN. TWOTD is my favourite Bruce Lee film.

chrisisall

Matt S wrote:

TWOTD is my favourite Bruce Lee film.

Way Of The Dragon has the famous Chuck Norris fight in the Colosseum in Rome, and it's awesome, but for fascinating moves I recommend the reconstructed Game Of Death- not an actual movie as it was never finished, but it's Lee at his most experimental. Fists Of Fury probably has the best told story.
But ETD will always be my favourite... and it's so damn pretty.

Matt S

chrisisall wrote:

Matt S wrote:

TWOTD is my favourite Bruce Lee film.

Way Of The Dragon has the famous Chuck Norris fight in the Colosseum in Rome, and it's awesome, but for fascinating moves I recommend the reconstructed Game Of Death- not an actual movie as it was never finished, but it's Lee at his most experimental. Fists Of Fury probably has the best told story.
But ETD will always be my favourite... and it's so damn pretty.

I like all of them! Game of Death has some great music by John Barry.

chrisisall

Matt S wrote:

Game of Death has some great music by John Barry.

Yuck! I dislike that movie intensely. The music by Barry is fine, but they used so little of Lee's actual footage. The reconstructed version uses ALL of it, and it's much more exciting. But like I said, it's not an actual movie, just like the final fight scenes in it (35 minutes)...

chrisisall

The similarities:
An 'agent' sent in to investigate.
To an island.
Where he gets captured.
By an half Asian (Asian) dude with metal hands (a metal hand).
Then all Hell breaks loose.
:v

Barbel

Matt S wrote:

Game of Death has some great music by John Barry.

Very true- and perhaps the only time he wrote the lyrics to the main song!

(He co-wrote lyrics to "The Deep" with Donna Summer)

Matt S

Barbel wrote:

Matt S wrote:

Game of Death has some great music by John Barry.

Very true- and perhaps the only time he wrote the lyrics to the main song!

(He co-wrote lyrics to "The Deep" with Donna Summer)

Well, I never cared for the lyrics to either of those songs. I prefer the music to The Deep over Will This be the Song I'll be Singing Tomorrow. But I really like the main theme to Game of Death.

chrisisall

Matt S wrote:

I really like the main theme to Game of Death.

The main theme (which is also the fight music) was pretty damn good. Plus Maurice Binder did the main titles... if only they made better use of the footage & created a better story to support it... 8-)

Le Samourai

It's a tough call.

While DN is technically a superior film, it has lost some of its luster for me over the years. I now have some issues with the second half of the movie.

ETD resonates with me more personally not just because of the martial arts, but because of the way Bruce Lee incorporates elements of his own philosophy into the film, i.e. "the art of fighting by not fighting" and "don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."

If only he had lived to make the epic martial arts-and-philosophy film I know he had in him!

chrisisall

Le Samourai wrote:

If only he had lived to make the epic martial arts-and-philosophy film I know he had in him!

That might have been The Silent Flute. Sadly, he never got to make it. And Circle Of Iron was a pretty crude & poorly produced version of it.

Le Samourai

chrisisall wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:

If only he had lived to make the epic martial arts-and-philosophy film I know he had in him!

That might have been The Silent Flute. Sadly, he never got to make it. And Circle Of Iron was a pretty crude & poorly produced version of it.

Agree. I saw Circle of Iron years ago and all I could think about was the film's wasted potential.

chrisisall

But more on topic, I saw DN some time after ETD as a kid, an all I thought was man, Bond did okay, whereas Lee opened up a can of serious whoopass! )

BIG TAM

chrisisall wrote:

Matt S wrote:

Game of Death has some great music by John Barry.

Yuck! I dislike that movie intensely. The music by Barry is fine, but they used so little of Lee's actual footage. The reconstructed version uses ALL of it, and it's much more exciting. But like I said, it's not an actual movie, just like the final fight scenes in it (35 minutes)...

GAME OF DEATH is a pretty tacky, tasteless film that always leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The shameless use of Bruce Lee's actual funeral doesn't help. But I too like John Barry's music & the Pagoda fight sequence. I always thought this would make a great idea in a Bond film - either an updated version of Shatterhand's Garden of Death or a pre-credits sequence. The latter not 35 minutes in length, though!

chrisisall

BIG TAM wrote:

GAME OF DEATH is a pretty tacky, tasteless film that always leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The shameless use of Bruce Lee's actual funeral doesn't help.

Back in the day we ate it up though... any new Lee was better than none. Those idiots really screwed the pooch with that one though.

Mr Snow

chrisisall wrote:

But more on topic, I saw DN some time after ETD as a kid, an all I thought was man, Bond did okay, whereas Lee opened up a can of serious whoopass! )

Sounds like he may have done a 'silent but deadly' fart!

chrisisall

Looks familiar.... a cousin perhaps? )