User reviews

Here's yet another in the fairly lengthy list of Bruceploitation flicks to emerge after the great mans untimely demise.

Well, first things first, you just have to hand it to the makers of this – what a bloody ridiculous (i.e super cool!) plot! There is just one slight problem from the start however……the three clones of the late martial arts star actually bear bugger all resemblance to him! (nor to each other even more alarmingly!!!) Still, let us not nit pick over such erm….inconsequential factors; rather let us instead revel in the never ending series of chop-socky fights, cool seventies fashions (including humongous sunglasses and medallions) and indeed the presence of perennial B-movie faves Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and Bolo Yueng.

Also of note there are some admittedly hilarious scenes on offer including an entirely gratuitous sequence featuring a group of naked girls on a beach, and in another set of scenes, a bunch of chubby bronze warriors who just can't seem to catch on that chomping on certain poisonous plants isn't conducive to one's good health(!!!)

Despite the above high points, it does have to be said that the film is actually rather mundane in it's execution however and that the numerous fights (which account for the majority of the films running time) do actually become somewhat tiresome after a while. Nonetheless, as I previously said, credit where credit's due – for sheer stupidity of plot, this is something of a classic!

With the news of actor Bruce Lee's sudden death in July 1973 from a mysterious brain aneurysm at the age of 32 it's decided by Mr. Colin of the SBI-Special Branch of Investigations-to have a sample of Bruce's brain used to have him cloned into not one but three Bruce Lee's to fight crime in the orient. It's a task given to mad professor Lucas who as we'll soon see has plans of his own in using the Lee's to do his insane bidding; Which is to kill each other in mortal combat for his own sick entertainment!

The Lee's get involved with a number of bad guys in the movie one a film director who uses his job as cover to smuggle gold bars out of the country-Hong Kong-and have Bruce murdered while staring in his movie as a cover to his crimes as well as increase the film's box-office returns. There's another crazed psycho who plans to create a army of free rang and grass fed men of steel or bronze to take over the world and make him the supreme dictator. And then finally Professor Lucas himself who's just plain crazy who plans to destroy the very thing or things that he created the Lee's just for the fun of doing it! Played for laughs the movie does in fact have a number of great fight scenes with the three Lee's doing their best to imitate the late Bruce Lee but falling a bit short.

There's also in the movie a number of shocking but very titillating T&A scenes-With naked and very busty Chinese girls running around on the beach-in the film that are in fact far better then any of the action scenes in it. Worth watching in seeing just how influential the late Bruce Lee was in that his death didn't put an end to his career but made him far more popular then he was when alive. That to the point of movie studios raising Bruce from the dead in order to do it!

THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE is perhaps the ultimate Bruceploitation film, featuring no less than three Bruce Lee imitators (and two of those are the hard-working Dragon Lee and Bruce Le). It starts off with the depiction of the death of the real Bruce Lee, only to have his body claimed by a mad scientist (Jon Benn, who starred in CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER and WAY OF THE DRAGON) who proceeds to replicate three clones from it.

This action-packed tale then follows each clone as he engages in training routines before being sent off on special missions, typically performing assassinations and the like. Eventually they turn on each other. The whole thing was brought to you courtesy of infamous exploitation director Dick Randall, whose CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER is a mini masterpiece of its type. THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE isn't, but it's still a must for trash fans.

There's no denying the slapdash nature of this film, which was shot in Thailand and the Philippines. While the plot is more involved than your regular kung fu outing, the fight scenes feel very laboured and predictable; the Bruce Lee imitators spend too much time copying Bruce Lee instead of showing much in the way of real skill themselves. I feel they did better work elsewhere. Still, on the other hand, the viewer does get treated to Bolo Yeung (DOUBLE IMPACT), gratuitous nudity, training scenes set to stolen ROCKY music, and a general air of ineptness and anything-goes cult appeal.

I saw this film in the early eighties, so my memory of the plot details is pretty hazy. I do recall, however that the clones mentioned in the title not only didn't look very much like Bruce Lee, they didn't look like each other! Also, there was an army of overweight men in diapers who were covered with metallic paint and were supposed to be made out of bronze. Whenever these guys would get kicked or punched a metallic "bong" was heard on the soundtrack to enhance the illusion. The only problem that the effect was ruined by the way their flesh jiggled on impact. I went to a lot of lousy films in those days, but this one got by far the worst audience reaction of all of them(although the place was nearly full!). If they were dumb enough to think a film with a title like this would be good, they deserved to be disappointed. Personally, at the time I thought it was a lot of goofy fun.

This movie is actually so bad. (Direction, acting, effects, even the fighting) that it has reached some sort of cult status over here. You should check it out. It's funny as hell.

Some people have considered this lesser known film to be the worst Chinese movie ever made and I wholeheartedly agree. Why is to easy to find Chinese movies online? Anyway, Bruce Lee was such a massive icon there was actually an entire genre devoted to imitating him. Let's just say imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery in this case. This movie features a guy who, well makes clones of Bruce Lee. We get a lot of pointless scenes showing them fighting.

The movie's plot just seems to be all over the place. About halfway through, they go to a beach where naked women are. I guess if I was more of a pervert, I'd enjoy this more. They fight this villain who wants to, you guessed it, take over the world ("of course!"). He turns people into metal to use as soldiers. It's as stupid as it sounds, but at least it's not worse. *1/2

Some name / style exploitation films of the 60s/70s had sexist undertones / audiences,

others had political prejudist ones, etc,

others, like this one, had a pure exploit, in this case of a name,

and so are not excluded even moreso than the worst of the worst,

BUT,

also like some exploit films where they were likely just a bit of fun at the time,

it had aside from the usual, not much worse than a james bond film at the time baddies,

one memorably absurd and unique way of dealing with robot like under a mad scientists's control clones / baddies...

... feed them some weed!

:D

worth it just for that! Lol.

Maybe strap a bucket-bong to their heads and spin them around JC style?

Might've been too obvious? Lol.

Worked though, didn't it? Metallic man went down!

Brave. Compared to many exploit films, on-screen,.. weed makes metallic-man goes down... FEED YOUR MAN WEED... ethics, politics at the time,..

... yep. Brave. Production values are a joke,.. :D ... but brave nevertheless.

A wacky for-kids tibetan film style zoom-in on the metallic-men's faces contorting to the taste / experience of the weed, would've been a nice touch.

:)

worth it just for that. The rest is disposable.

HA HA HA!!! Man, I wish they could move that gas mask or take those 70s shades off. Is that Bruce Lee times three?

This movie definitely was shoddily done, but the dubbing is kooky and the story is hilarious. At times, I think there were four Bruces. There is so much to say during the beach scene seeing two Bruce wannabes sporting speedos and one of them warning him to stay away from the naked babes on the beach and that they'll "eat you alive". WHY are they avoiding the women? Of course, throw in gratuitous nudity to attract attention. The kung fu isn't up to Shaw Bros. level, but it's decent. Dragon Lee is the best one as Bruce number one and swipes at his nose so often, you'd think he did lines in between takes. The scientist guy is played by guy who was head boss ("What I like, I get. And I want that restaurant!!!) in Way of the Dragon. Head Ham award gose to the evil drug lord who you have to credit him for being a big thinker. Not only does he want to be top drug lord, but be impressed by his "We will rule the world" speech.

This is far from being good in quality, but a lot of fights, very kooky premise, and high in kampiness value makes Clones a fun one to watch.

Following Bruce Lee's death, Hong Kong made a number of "Bruceploitation" movies: they starred people who looked like Bruce Lee (and some got advertised as genuine Bruce Lee movies). "The Clones of Bruce Lee" is a prime example. It depicts the creation of Bruce Lee clones sent on missions. Of course, the whole thing is an excuse for non-stop action. The best scene is set on a Thai beach. Without a doubt, the movie's target audience is 14-year-old boys.

This is the first Bruceploitation movie that I've seen. All that I can say is that I hope that the entire genre is like this. The funny action and erotic beach constitute one fun flick! A really good time.

Most of the "Bruceploitation" titles are pretty awful, ("Challenge of the Tiger") while some are genuinely fun, eye popping entertainment, ("Bruce's Deadly Fingers"). Then there is something like THIS,a movie which is just so bizarre that it's hard to believe your eyes. 40 years ago the subject of cloning was pure fantasy, something only seen in movies. Today, with cloning being a reality, this film takes on a whole new meaning, and although it's silly in it's execution, the basic ideas behind it are weird and fascinating. A power-hungry scientist extracts some blood from a recently deceased Bruce Lee, and uses it to produce 3 clones of Lee, that he further dehumanizes by naming them simply 1, 2, and 3. The clones don't have much personality and that makes them creepy. They are trained to be killing machines, as their martial arts skills are honed and shaped to be as good as the Master Lee. Of course this doctor does not have good intentions with his plan, and in the end he sadistically orders the three clones to basically beat each other to death. The only thing that can stop this is the two beautiful nurses who have been there from the beginning, and have developed real emotions towards the guys. And that's easy to understand when the guys are Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and Bruce Lai, three of the most popular of the Bruce lookalikes. Featuring the expected over the top fight sequences, a fantastic retro soundtrack and handsome widescreen photography, and most important, a script that is interesting and very unique. I think these movies have more value now than they did 40 years ago, as historical documents of an era that is sadly gone. Those who are tired of bloated, CGI, Politically Correct Hollywood nonsense, will most likely love this movie.

(1980) Clones of Bruce Lee DUBBED MARTIAL ARTS

It has often been said that the Bruce Lee name continued to be exploited long after he had died, and this movie is evidence to that which regards a scientist taking a small sample of blood from Bruce Lee's arm for the intentions of creating clones of the martial arts star- hence the name. And since this facility was being financed by the SBI not the FBI mind you, which stands for the "Special Branch of Investigators' , the real intentions for the cloning was to do some good with it by sending each of the Bruce Lee clones to do some good with it, such as to going after a well renown movie producer, who was dealing with gold smuggling, and a doctor in Thailand dealing with narcotics. Notice the credits called each of the characters chosen to play the clones of Bruce Lee all have some relation tot he Bruce Lee name which are Dragon Lee, Bruce Le with "E" missing, Bruce Lai and finally Bruce Thai.