Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is rousing entertainment with many faces -- martial arts thrills, romance, mystery, comedy -- and a double dose of poignancy. Read full review

It's tremendous fun. The movie -- directed by Rob Cohen -- switches pleasingly from exciting fights to moments of magic playfulness. It's doubly touching to experience Bruce Lee's fleeting life and, in the brief depictions of little son Brandon, to fatefully anticipate the tragedy to come. Read full review

No mere chopsocky, martial arts movie, this Universal release is a moving testament to the spirit and resilience of Bruce Lee, as well as a compelling love story that transcends cultural bounds. The audience should be wide for this well-made winner, which appeals to both women and men. [3 May 1993]

What's exciting about Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is that, in Jason Scott Lee, the movies have created a new star out of an old star. The film is a tribute to Bruce Lee but it's also a tribute to the transforming powers of performance. Lee does justice to Bruce Lee while, at the same time, creating a character out of his own fierce resources. He is, quite literally, smashing. Read full review

It'll satisfy genre fans and Lee fans and win new adherents to the Asian-style action film, with its dazzling moves that make conventional Hollywood movies look like cement mixers in low gear. [7 May 1993, p.25]

Fast and slick, it recalls The Buddy Holly Story - perhaps the last pop bio that was this much fun to watch. [7 May 1993, p.4D]

An entertaining and sometimes exceptional look at the short life of the man who singlehandedly brought about the boom of martial arts in this country. Starring Jason Scott Lee (no relation), "Dragon" covers Lee's life from his early days in Hong Kong to his final scene from "Enter The Dragon," Lee's only big-budget American movie. [12 May 1993, p.6F]

Dragon: The Story of Bruce Lee is therefore one of those rarities, a biography as entertaining as it is informative. [7 May 1993, p.6]

This plays up Lee's heroic accomplishments perhaps more than necessary, but it's impossible to deny the power of the basic thrust of his life story, or the spectacular fight sequences. Read full review

The brief, meteoric, tragic life of martial arts star Bruce Lee forms the basis of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. The film is an unlikely pastiche of traditional biography, Hollywood saga, chopsocky set pieces and inter-racial romance. Seemingly contrary elements and styles nonetheless mesh into an entertaining whole and the result proves extremely touching and haunting. Read full review

Director/co-screenwriter Rob Cohen shrewdly opts for a three-tiered approach to the biographical material, making DRAGON a poignant interracial love story, a thrilling kung-fu flick, and a surreal fantasy in the which the hero literally confronts his inner demons. Jason Scott Lee captures his subject perfectly, and his handling of the action scenes is particularly impressive. The result is one of the most purely enjoyable American films in recent years. Read full review

"Dragon" has an appeal beyond the buffs. Beyond the particulars of biography, it's a timeless human story told with heart and verve. Read full review

Based on a book by his widow, it's an entertaining film that shows a few warts in portraying Lee's complexity but is, overall, reverential (in the best biopic tradition). [7 May 1993]

An enjoyably hokey, big-budget theatrical film with a lot of kicks and the soul of a television movie. It's exactly what it announces itself to be and won't offend (or surprise) anyone...Although "Dragon" has few surprises, it is an entertainingly predictable enterprise. Read full review

If anything holds Dragon together, it’s Jason Scott Lee’s intensely likable performance. Read full review

Dragon works just fine as a martial arts epic, with several extravagant and thrilling action sequences. [7 May 1993]

You cannot do in real life most of the things the characters in these movies do, because of the unfortunate restrictions imposed by Newton's Laws, but what the heck: It's fun to watch. Read full review

Those expecting Dragon to offer a probing examination of Bruce Lee's life will be disappointed. This is not a "tell all" expose or a hard-hitting biography. Instead, it's a celebration of the first international Chinese-American movie star. As such, the film accomplishes what it set out to do while keeping its audience involved for its full running time. Read full review

If you take a strict approach to "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story," you will probably squirm at every narrative shortcut and reconstruction of "reality" for mass consumption. If you're a fanatic follower of the late martial-arts master - whose death in 1973 at age 32 was caused by cerebral swelling - the cinematic liberties could prove to be distracting. If, on the other hand, you're just out to be entertained, and neither know nor care about the exact details, you'll probably find this briskly populist biopic not only quite enjoyable, but respectful of Lee's martial-arts legacy and the vibrant spirit that has fueled his immortality. [7 May 1993, p.3]

Part chopsocky action, part romance, part hokey fantasy, Dragon will please anyone open to a well-made, if superficial, Hollywood biography, a "biopic-lite." [8 May 1993, p.G5]

Unlike most film star biopics, this is especially strong on the films themselves, with skilful re-creations from Fists of Fury and Enter the Dragon. Less successful is the subplot in which Lee faces up to his inner demons, depicted as a fantastical giant samurai figure. Read full review

An engaging diversion, if a hokey and predictable one. [7 May 1993, p.15]

Dragon should never be regarded as the utmost in historical veracity, though it certainly captures a great deal of the spirit and flavor of what we so fondly remember as the essence of Bruce Lee. Read full review

Dragon errs by trafficking too much in what made Bruce Lee sell instead of what made him tick. Read full review

In the end, the best thing about The Dragon is that it will make people want to go out and rent ''Enter the Dragon.'' [7 May 1993, p.C1]

Dragon is guilty of simplifying the raw material of Lee's life for melodramatic as well as martial-arts purposes - and isn't always convincing in the process. Still, headliner Jason Scott Lee does a fine job of suggesting the charisma, grace and sheer explosive force of Bruce Lee's personality, as well as his drive to master self-awareness as well as self-defense. [11 May 1993, p.D7]

An intermittently engaging and confused blend of biopic, chop-socky, dopey mysticism and, oddest of all, melodramatic weepie, is no ``JFK.''[7 May 1993, p.AE15]