Birth of the Dragon
BH Tilt | Release Date: August 25, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
8
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
TheWrapRobert AbeleAug 25, 2017
As alternatingly silly and serious as its mix of wisdom and wallops, and even with that blond bro gumming up the works, “Birth” is nevertheless zippy, B-movie entertainment. Read full review
58
IGNBlair MarnellAug 25, 2017
Birth of the Dragon is not the Bruce Lee biopic you’ve been waiting for, as strong performances and martial arts action by Philip Ng and Xia Yu are wasted on a movie that had too little faith in the real story. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 25, 2017
Birth of the Dragon is ambitious: it wants to be a character study, an explication of martial arts philosophy and an action picture.... But the film never really gets fully juiced until the climax. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonAug 25, 2017
The problem with Birth of the Dragon, George Nolfi’s largely fictionalized account of a 1964 fight between an Oakland martial arts instructor named Bruce Lee and San Francisco instructor Wong Jack Man is that Lee...is the third-most important character in the film. Read full review
40
Total FilmTim ColemanFeb 27, 2018
In the hands of director George Nolfi, what could have been a fascinating insight into street versus classical martial arts instead becomes a generic fight flick, with a script so heavy-handed it feels like it was bashed out with knuckle-dusters. Read full review
40
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Feb 19, 2018
Almost certainly the second worst thing to happen to Bruce Lee, this toothless and tame movie doesn’t even come close to capturing the great man’s dangerous charisma. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckAug 24, 2017
The fight scenes are indeed the film’s strongest element, even if at times they seem overly choreographed and slightly cheesy. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayAug 24, 2017
It’s unusual to see a film like this make its nominal hero into a jerk, who learns something essential from his nemesis. True or not, the complex characterization does make for a better story. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 24, 2017
The whole enterprise plays like a throwback, summoning up memories of Lee’s cut-rate/no-script “chop sockey” pictures where the charisma was obvious, the fights epic, the stories an afterthought and the effects wincingly obvious. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Andrew ParkerAug 24, 2017
Xia's humble sifu lends more gravitas than this dreck deserves, and a rousing, improbable finale in which Lee and Man take on the mob together offers some great fight choreography, but it's all too little, too late. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 26, 2017
The aura of cheap-o emptiness is overwhelming: Scenes tend to be visually featureless, composed against strangely empty walls or Vancouver street corners. Even the occasionally decent fight choreography looks unappealing. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 30, 2017
The end result never really achieves much more than being exactly what it is: another horseshoes and hand grenades attempt to tell version ad infinitum of the legend of Bruce Lee. Read full review
0
RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaAug 25, 2017
A preposterous screenwriting-for-dummies exercise directed with all the flare of a mid-‘90s tourism video. Read full review
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