Dynamo (1978)

After the death of Bruce Lee in 1973, a slew of imitators invaded the world of the kung fu flick. One of the more well-known is Bruce Li (aka Ho Chung Tao), who continued making sequels and what one might charitably call homages well into the 1980s. Dynamo would, were it just another kung fu flick, rank somewhere in the middle of the pack; if the plot is strictly connect-the-dots, the fight scenes aren't bad, and there are plenty of them. (Though it should be noted that not all of the fight scenes are actually from this ... Read More

After the death of Bruce Lee in 1973, a slew of imitators invaded the world of the kung fu flick. One of the more well-known is Bruce Li (aka Ho Chung Tao), who continued making sequels and what one might charitably call homages well into the 1980s. Dynamo would, were it just another kung fu flick, rank somewhere in the middle of the pack; if the plot is strictly connect-the-dots, the fight scenes aren't bad, and there are plenty of them. (Though it should be noted that not all of the fight scenes are actually from this film, a move made presumably to lengthen the movie, which as it is clocks in at a paltry 81 minutes and barely sustains the plot even that long.) The premise--a Bruce Lee lookalike plucked from obscurity to make money for an advertising agency--is awkwardly ironic, and mention of Lee's recent demise early in the film doesn't help matters, although it's probably supposed to. When it is Li onscreen, he's actually fun to watch, and it's regrettable that his career is largely founded on imitating Bruce Lee. He tries, but largely lacks the latter's passionate intensity that was key to his star quality, and the result is a film that's a pale copy of the real thing. If you want to watch a Bruce Lee movie, then you might as well watch a Bruce Lee movie. Genevieve Williams, Rovi Read Less