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Finishing the Game
Score: 80%
Rating: Not Rated
Publisher: Genius Products
Region: 1
Media: DVD/1
Running Time: 84 Mins.
Genre: Mockumentary/Martial Arts
Audio: English Stereo
Subtitles: Spanish, English SDH

Features:
  • Feature Commentary by Co-Writer/Director Justin Lin, Co-Writer Josh Diamond and Composer Brian Tyler
  • On Set Mayhem
  • Deleted Scenes with Optional Director/Co-Writer/Composer Commentary
  • Satisfaction: A Music Video by Far*Easy Movement

Finishing the Game is a fun mockumentary, but the only people who will probably appreciate it are those familiar with Game of Death and the multitude of Kung Fu movies from that time.

Game of Death was Bruce Lee's final movie. He had only just started filming it when he died, and the studio's desire to keep making the film meant the crew needed to get a body double to finish out the movie. Finishing the Game is that task's tale. The cameras will follow around not only the casting director, Eloise (Meredith Lynn Scott), and director Ronney (Jake Sandvig), but also various potential body doubles.

These potential talents include Breeze Loo (Roger Fan), who already has a dozen Kung Fu movies under his belt including "Fists of Feuhrer" and "Exiting the Serpent." While there appear to be quite a few similarities between Loo's movies and Lee's, he claims to have never seen a Bruce Lee film.

Also on the casting call is Raja (Mousa Kraish), who promised his dying mother to one day become a doctor, even though his dream is to be a Kung Fu movie star. When we first meet this potential actor, he has started his first day as a doctor and immediately quits to pursue his dream. We also meet Tarrick Tyler (McCaleb Burnett), a half Chinese man who protests the repression the Chinese have experienced over the years. Of course both Raja and Tarrick have very noticeable physical issues with replacing Bruce Lee, but that doesn't seem to bother the crew's desire to use them (much to the studio's chagrin).

The final major characters are Cole Kim (Sung Kang) and his girlfriend Saraghina (Monique Curnen) who dream of leaving the southern states for a future in the movies. But when Cole makes Saraghina his manager, their relationship might not survive the casting process.

Finishing the Game is very much a niche indie title. Most of the public probably won't appreciate the wittiness of the movie's jabs at the classic stereotypes or downright prejudice that was prevalent at the time. But viewers familiar with Bruce Lee's death, the movie Game of Death, and the various knockoff movies that came from Lee's success will definitely find this movie enjoyable.



-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer
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