Legacy of Rage (1986)

Thanks for the memories!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Crappy film

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

For a first movie with a leading role, then "Legacy of Rage" was a very generic and not particularly memorable movie for Brandon Lee. I was, however, surprised that Brandon Lee actually seriously started his career in Hong Kong cinema.I was unfortunately watching an English dubbed DVD without the option to switch to the original Cantonese audio track. Granted that it was dubbed, it wasn't the worst of dubbing jobs in Asian movies, but still...The story was adequate, but it was just a bit too forced and scripted, and Brandon Lee weren't given that many opportunities to showcase his skills, neither acting nor martial arts.Aside from Brandon Lee then "Legacy of Rage" also starred Michael Wong, in what might actually be one of this more impressive and memorable roles. I didn't know that Michael Wong had acted opposite Brandon Lee, so that was a nice treat. The movie also has a small appearance by Bolo Yeung (yep, the memorable bad guy from "Blood Sport").While fun to watch Brandon Lee's first movie in a leading role, then "Legacy of Rage" wasn't particularly memorable. This movie might appeal to die-hard fans of Brandon Lee, but it doesn't offer much for the fans of Hong Kong cinema.

This was Brandon Lee's (the son of Bruce Lee) only Hong Kong movie. It was claimed that he was reluctant to do this movie because he did not believe that he could compete with the reputation of his father. Des Mangan says that he did a fine job in this movie but I disagree to an extent. I thought his acting ability was okay, and he martial arts were good, but the execution of the movie was very bad. As for competing with his father, the only decent Bruce Lee movie I have seen is his last one, Enter the Dragon.The action in this movie was very bad in my opinion. Most of the movie dealt with how he tried to come to terms with the fact that his best friend had betrayed him and sent him to gaol for eight years. In gaol he learns of his friend's betrayal and tries to escape but doesn't succeed. Instead his is given a lecture of how it is not something he wants to do because he will end up in worse trouble. This itself is good because it deals with his struggle between his desire for his revenge and his knowledge that if he let that desire overcome him he will be much worse off.In the end he lets his desire get the better of him when his girlfriend and son are kidnapped and he learns of this. He goes to his old friend and gets his help in going after his former friend. This is where the bad action scenes come in. The rest of the movie is Brandon Lee shooting up BMWs coming towards him. There are about five of them and they all seem to happen on the same stretch of road. This seems to be low budget action and really the movie could have done without it.With low budget movies, the story counts for much more than effects and action. In this movie the story is good, and concludes in the hollow victory - the one where they win, but at a huge cost. These hollow victories seem to be my favourite at the moment. Here, they win, but the woman dies, and both men land up in gaol. Sorry if I spoilt the end for you, but it is something that sets the movie apart. The problem is that this is really only tacked on at the end. The movie closes with them speeding off in a speedboat but a subtitle explains what happened - pretty poor I thought.This movie is okay, but I find that the attempts to improve it really fall flat on its face. As such, the Legacy of Rage does not stand out for me.

This was a great debut for Brandon Lee, it's action packed, with a very cool story and awesome performances. all the characters were great, and it had quite a few shocking moments, plus Michael Wong is extremely menacing as the main villain. The violence in this film is not pretty, and, the ending really pours it on, plus Brandon lee had good chemistry with all of the cast. It's exciting throughout, and the finale is full of gunfire, plus Brandon lee's dubbing was surprisingly not that bad at all!. They really don't make em like this no more, and the film is very stylish, plus the film pulls no punches. Yes it's a little predictable, however i still enjoyed it very much and Brandon Lee's presence clearly helped a lot, plus the prison scenes were really cool!. There isn't a lot of martial arts action however it's quite exciting, plus the ending was great. This was a great debut for Brandon Lee, it's action packed with a very cool story, and awesome performances, i highly recommend this one!. The Direction is very good. Ronny Yu does a very good job here, with great camera work, awesome angles keeping it stylish, and he kept the film at a very fast pace. There is TONS of blood and violence. We get a stabbing, lots of harsh bloody beatings,Hundreds of extremely bloody gunshot wounds,people spurt out blood all over the place throughout,eye bashed out,gory impaling and tons of blood!. The Acting is excellent!. Brandon lee is AMAZING as he always was, and was amazing here, he is extremely likable, witty, kicked that ass had good chemistry with the cast, and was just tons of fun to watch!, his dubbing wasn't too bad either(Brandon Ruled!). Bolo Yeung is good in his very short role, however his dubbing was terrible, and i didn't see enough of him sadly. (Bolo Rules). Regina Kent is good in her role, she was cute and had good chemistry with Brandon. Michael Wong is excellent as the main villain, he was extremely menacing and unpredictable. Rest of the cast are fine. Overall i highly recommend this one!. ***1/2 out of 5

I thought, how could a movie with Brandon Lee and Bolo Yeung possibly be boring. I expected very little plot substance, but at least one or two good fight scenes. Even the climatic fight scene was ho-hum.When Brandon Lee fights a bad guy in this movie, it is punch one or two punches and it is over. His fight against Bolo was just like that. Bolo goes for a punch Brandon punches twice and it is over, next bad guy please.The acting is weak at best. Probably not helped by horrendous dubbing. But even the facial expressions weren't that great (perhaps on par with other really bad Hong Kong Action movies) with anger looking more like shocked constipation.Definitely not worth the time.