Customer Reviews

Finishing the Game

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ok first of all, I enjoyed seeing Roger Fan, Dustin Nguyen, Brian Tee, and Sung Kang in a movie ALL together. I just luuuv them!!! This movie was hilarious. It made light of the serious plight of an Asian American male who goes for casting calls in Hollywood. One of my favorite scenes was with Brian Tee playing a Vietnam Vet. I thought it was brilliantly done and after renting it this past weekend from Blockbuster, I'm gonna buy it!!!

Saw this at a film festival last year. Thought it was really funny! Very satirical, with surprisingly good performances by Roger Fan, Sung Kang, and Dustin Nguyen. MC Hammer is hilarious, too! Would have been good if they at least had one shot of the real Bruce Lee which would have shown how good Roger Fan actually is in immitating him (even though his character is the one "replacement candidate" who claims to be his "own man"). Highly recommended.

If you love 70's / 80's B movies - oh this film is just perfect. If you remember that -sploitation (fill in the class, black, asian, women, etc.) era and cringe, just move on, don't watch this film. If you hate Ron Jeremy and seeing the edge of an adult film set compelete with full frontal male and female nudity, look the other way.

This is a paradoy of those B movies. They got the clothing, the lighting, the hair, the bad acting, the cars, the decor (the way walls were painted, furniture, et al), the film stock, the audio, the titles, and the editing absolutely 100% perfect spot on.

This is a cast of thousands, almost all B actors with long resumes in television or supporting actors in other films. James Franco shows up, probably the biggest name actor.

This got four stars simply because it's such a perfectly done throw back to an era of film making. It's short hour and 24 minutes to the point. There's some good laughs here and there. It feels a bit like a documentary, but is definately not real.

This film is R rated and then some. There's a lot of foul language. There is full male and female frontal nudity for exactly the reason a film might get and NC-17 rating. There's a small amount of violence, mostly in recreations of old television programs. Definately not a film for anyone younger than this rating.

The DVD is blissfully devoid of any special features.

Very funny movie on several levels. Looks at discrimination, which is very real and hurtful, and by laughing at it helps diffuse the hurt. Even the most unlikeable characters become real, and likeable. Finishing the Game is a great watch with a group of friends, and even better the second time. I nearly fell off my chair laughing a few times, but look for the subtleties as well. Goes far deeper than one might think, but is a lot of fun on every level.

I stumbled across this gem on cable tv, halfway through. Watched ten minutes & thought, if this is as good as it seems to be, just gotta watch this from the beginning. Think Spinal Tap--but with the plot involving finishing a Bruce Lee movie.
I have now actually bought this film!

Finishing the Game was an Excellent Parody of the Classic Martial Arts movies of the 70's. The script for this Mockumentary was hilarious, and the Casting was brilliant. The storyline involves the casting of a body double who can pass for Bruce Lee, so the film company that holds the remaining small amount of Authentic Bruce Lee footage, can complete and release his last film. Roger Fan as Breeze Loo isn't the typical martial arts hero - He looks and acts the part Perfectly but doesn't do any of his own stunts at all. Still, One look at his facial expressions would make any opponent think twice. Sung Kang as Cole Kim may be the most likable of the wannabe action stars who's enthusiasm is over the top overwhelming as he issues his intense lines with a smile on his face. Bernardo Pena as Remi Nguyen is the exact opposite as he recites his lines with absolutely no emotion or facial expression. The Audition Scenes for the coveted role are one of this film highlights. Dustin Nguyen and James France are seen in a hilarious send up of American (Buddy)Crime Dramas of the 70's (Think Streets of S.F.) And MC Hammer is fun as a Shrewd entrepreneur making money exploiting the need for Minorities in Hollywood films. Oh Yeah, And I can't leave out the (obviously) caucasian dude who thinks he passes for being asian because his mother was asian. He even crusades for the rights of all exploited asian americans,.... including himself. There is even a familiar sounding Voice (Think Classic Sci-Fi) as one of the Dubbed Voices in a classic Kung Fu clip earlier in the film. I probably should've given this movie a 5 star Rating but it felt too short, perhaps partly due to the way it ended. It's around 80 minutes or so long and I think a bit of that may have been credits as well. It definitely left me wanting more, BUT the movie time it did have was Excellent. Thumbs Up.

Very funny. Another reviewer wrote, "Even the most unlikeable characters become real, and likeable". There's a good naturedness here, perhaps it's necessary for a comedy like this. I think I felt kind of sorry for the fictional characters being portrayed. The movie goes in different directions tho. At one point one of the Bruce Lee tryouts stands next to a scruffy, bearded guy (always wearing the white Karate outfit in the film) and says, "I always try and look good, that's why I always stand next to him". I'm not up on this genre but I suspect it was an inside joke about the Chuck Norris types present in some of these films. It was funny. Hope I laughed at the right thing.

I Caught this on what must have been free HBO night and missed the very beginning. Didn't completely understand the premise. I thought they were trying out to portray Bruce Lee, the way Will Smith has portrayed Muhammed Ali, etc, or they wanted another star who simply could conjure up the same image as Lee.

There's a sort-of conservative element to this movie (aside from the part where a tryout beats up his hero, the guys he's worshipped onscreen, for moving in on his girlfriend and then she goes back to him - I was Ok with that bit of myth making). Late in the movie the producer or the big boss comes in to see how the casting process is going and hes very dissappointed. . . they've narrowed it down to a prospect who's 7 feet tall, a white guy, and another guy (forget his problem). The producers says, "Darn it, #!#!#!#, I could go to Chinatown and be back with a guy who looks like Bruce Lee in 10 minutes!" If he said this at the beginning of the movie it would have been one of the most insensitive to say things ever, by the end of the movie when he says this it seems like he's the only one who makes sense.

I thought it was very funny. Perfect rating.

This movie is fantastic! I love the way Justin Lin, The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, filmed this as a 70's documentary. It was a totally unepxected surprise to see MC Hammer as Roy Thunder. That was so funny and worth the purchase price right there. Hammer should be in more films because he can really act. In fact, one of the funniest lines in Finishing the Game, is when MC Hammer says, "I'm always on the lookout for the next Pat Morita."
After Bruce Lee died, several Asian actors tried to make Bruceploitation movies that had such stupid titles as Bruce Lee Fights Back From the Grave and Re-enter the Dragon. The Hong Kong film industry was in a panic to try to prolouge Bruce Lee's star power as long as they could by hiring look-a-likes and wannabes. Lin wonderfully satirized that with Fists of Fuhrer and he nailed it in the character Breeze Loo.
This film is also a look at how Asian actors were treated for a long time by Hollywood in such roles as delivery boys and servants. The real Bruce Lee did a lot to try to change the way Asians are looked at in film. Ironically because of Lee's achievements, now Hollywood is trying to sell Asians as martial arts stars, which means that few Asians are represented as being real. They are mostly reduced to oriental exoticism to sell tickets. Hollywood has yet to make a movie with Asians actors that really show a good well written story that doesn't exploit.
This movie is a lot of fun. The fact that it doesn't take itself so seriously makes it an enjoyable ride. Its worth a rent or to buy if you want to see an amusing look at how directors and producers attempt to create a film after the star's death.

This is a fictional comical 70's documentary style movie to find the next Bruce Lee. It makes fun of plenty of things from the era. Its a lot like the Office only instead of being in an office, its on a movie set. Its a movie about characters, 10 of them and you really see inside their personalities. The B-Movie star, the nice guy aspiring actor, the Hollywood washout, the white asian, the 20 year old director, the aged casting director, the Indian stuntman with a beard and William Hung (yes). If you're looking for slapstick or Hollywood movie humor, this isn't for you. I couldn't imagine sitting around with friends and laughing my ace off either. Its a quiet movie with charm and wit.

This is one of the funniest films I have seen in a long time. Well written, well-paced and hilarious performances. If you like the comedy genre, you will love this! You don't need to be a Bruce Lee fan to appreciate this - it's definitely on my list of must-see comedies!