Legacy of Rage (1986)

great and funny movie..

This movie was one of the first movies brandon lee had made before his death. This movie goes to show his acting talent and I would say it is very well for brandon lee. I especially like the movie for it's cheezy action and how well brandon acts in front of the camera.. I recommend this for every brandon lee fan.. July 17, 2008

[3.5] this is rage, only, without any martial arts combat

In a way, this is really a very good HK movie, but in many other ways it is just as lacking. I was actually blown away by how well the story is told. What I was dissapointed with were the little things like horrible dubbing and lame dialouge at times that got rather annoying. To top it all off, an almost embarassing cameo from Bolo and really no martial arts action to speak of. Overall, this is a fine film, it just all depends on what you are expecting to get out of it.

Three main reasons I purchased Legacy was for Brandon Lee, Bolo Yeung, and hopefully to see some amazing martial arts action. I guess I expected some bad dubbing and cheesiness, and oh yes, there's plenty of that here. But what really blew me away was the story. Things start out a little boring, but once the plot gets kicking it is actually quite engaging. You've got Brandon, who is your every day working guy with a girlfriend, and his best buddy Michael, who unknown to Brandon, is just a dirty drug-dealing guy. Michael sets up Brandon for the murder of a rival dealer, and Brandon gets 8 years of time. While in prison, Michael harasses Brandon's girlfriend, who has become pregnant with Brandon's son and is asked to leave the country with an older, yet kind, man who has been infatuated with her. Eight years later, Brandon is set free, and with help of a friend from prison, gets his revenge on Michael, in what is a bloody gun showdown without any martial arts combat whatsoever.

Despite the dubbing, which the excellent story actually covers up after awhile, Brandon seems to deliver a solid performance. It kind of reminded me of his capabilities in The Crow. However, I was hoping for some good kung fu action like in Rapid Fire, but there were only a couple of scenes of quick one two punches and out. Speaking of which, Bolo appears near the beginning of the film and challenges Brandon to a fight in the street. Well, its over as fast as they begin and Bolo doesn't land one punch. Seemed like such a waste for someone as good as Bolo.

To sum it up, you have to go into this film expecting a great story without so much action. I, on the other hand was hoping for some, and all I got was gun fight action. If that's your thing, you will love the last 10 minutes, but for kung fun lovers, this is not the film. November 3, 2007

Brandon Lee in a Hong Kong action movie

Now while The Crow has been the only worthwhile Brandon Lee movie I have watched, this is certainly # 2. It doesn't really stand out with anything special and is just your average crime drama. But with Ronny Yu at the helm and Bruce Lee's son as the star, he was going to try to make the best action movie ever. It is a decent story and well told, but like I said, nothing really happens. So you may like this if you like seeing a lot of cars blown up and quick one punch and it's over with fights. If you wanna see Brandon Lee playing one of his best roles, this is a must see.

Sound quality and widescreen(16:9) picture is pretty good. No special features though. August 1, 2006

for HK style action fans and Brandon Lee fans only

too depressing. It got me depressed watching Brandon in prison for most of the movie. You have to watch him scrub tiolets and it made me feel sad for Brandon. The gunplay in the movie is so ridiculous that it becomes unbelievable. In some scenes there's five or more guys with machine guns shooting at Brandon and his friend and they can't hit him or his friend from twenty feet away. This is in contrast to his later movies such as 'Rapid Fire' which isn't so insanely done. Only a gun fanatical teenager might enjoy this. For Brandon Lee fans this is well worth having in your action collection, though. Because the movie was made in Asia, the action is way more violent than what I've seen in US films. Although it's very nice to see Brandon bust loose physically when he does. It's just does he have to be in prison for so long? It was a little too sad.
*spoiler alert* don't read below if you haven't seen the movie
another thing that was sad was how he is separated from his girlfrined for 8 long years, she gets beaten when he's in prison, he gets out and then gets a job as a garbage man, and then his girlfriend is dead and his reaction is not even to go over to the body but just jump in an expensive speedboat and take off. The movie was very cold and mean. January 2, 2006

Something special :-)

Legacy Of Rage is a wonderful action thriller with great storytelling and character development, emotionally captivating actors and actresses, a cool sountrack, and explosive gun battles and few but very brutal non-stylistic, white-knuckle fight sequences choregraphed and starring Mang Hoi, and featuring the late-great Brandon Lee who showed such wonderful potential for HK (and perhaps US) action hero stardom.

So buy it already! November 8, 2005

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