Enter The Dragon: Special Edition
1973/102 mins.
Released by Warner Bros.
Rated R
Starring Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Shih Kien, Bob Wall, Bolo Yeung, Sammo Hung, and Jackie Chan
Directed by Robert Clouse
Format: Dual Sided, Single Layered(Film is presented in Widescreen format)
Reviewed by Robby Cox
E-mail: koi@magicnet.net

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Opening Remarks: This was one of the first Kung-Fu films that I ever actually liked. I used to watch Kung-Fu Theatre on USA on Saturday afternoons and I thought that those movies were pretty cool, but they weren't very good. When I originally saw Enter The Dragon I was wowed. I always wanted to purchase this DVD, but didn't until recently.
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Movie Quality: Enter The Dragon is one of the all time Kung-Fu classics. Bruce Lee goes to an island paradise to enter a Kung-Fu contest and to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings on this island. The plot sounds a lot like Mortal Kombat and it kinda is. The fights are pretty cool and Bruce is impressive as an actor. The first fight scene of the movie is Bruce Vs. Sammo Hung. While this is not a great fight, it's kinda cool to see a young Sammo. Sammo is also in the Bruce Lee film Game of Death. Anyways, later in the film Bruce kills Jackie Chan. You have to look very closely to find Jackie, but he's there. Anyways, this is a great action movie that is a blast to watch.
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Video Quality: I am confused as to how I feel about this disc's video quality. It looks good, but it's not perfect. I realize that this film is 25 + years old, but I also have the DVD of It's A Wonderful Life which is about twice as old and it looks spotless. This disc has some specks of dust and scratches on the negative, but it truthfully looks good. I would have expected Warner Bros. to have made sure that the transfer was spotless, but they didn't. It will impress you to a point, but you will wish that they would have done more. Anyways, this is by far the best looking version of this film.
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Sound Quality: Warner Bros. did an amazing job here. Enter The Dragon has been remixed in Dolby Digital Surround. The score is crystal clear and sounds amazing. The sound fx are nice, as well. Another added treat is that there is an isolated music track. That's right. You can watch the film and only hear the score. I normally wouldn't care very much about that, but Lalo Schifrin's score is amazing and is a classic. It ranks right up there with my favorite movie score of all times, which is Shaft. Nice job, Warners.
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Extras: This Special Edition is chocked full of extras. The only problem with this is that the package doesn't even list all of the extras. This disc has the remixed Surround soundtrack, the isolated score track, a commentary track by the film's producer Paul Heller and the writer Michael Allin, notes on the importance of belts in the martial arts, a history of martial arts films, a perspective on Jackie Chan, production notes, cast & crew biographies and filmographies, an introduction and interview gallery with Linda Lee Cadwell, wife of Bruce, mother of Brandon and Shannon, 4 theatrical trailers, 7 TV spots, a documentary entitled Location: Hong Kong with Enter The Dragon, and another commentary entitled Bruce Lee: In His Own Words. I probably forgot a few, but that's a lot and they're all excellent. There are also Spanish, French, and English subtitles. Warner did an excellent job here. *****************************************************************************

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Improve: The video could have been a little better.

RIYL: Other Bruce Lee films, Jackie Chan films, Once Upon A Time In China series.

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Overall Opinion: This is a great disc that is definitely worth your money. This disc contains a Kung Fu classic and a ton of interesting extras. It only retails for $20 and is well worth it. For some reason the one that I bought was only $15. So it was totally worth my money. Don't be scared away by my diatribe on the video quaality. Warners should have done a little better job on that, but they succeeded in every other way. Overall, this is a disc that everyone should own.
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Movie Quality: *****
Video Quality: ****
Sound Quality: *****
Extras: *****
Personal Opinion: *****
Total: 24 out of 25

Final Score: 96 %