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Birth of the Dragon

2016

George Nolfi

Billy Magnussen, Terry Chen, Teresa Navarro, Vanessa Ross ...

5.4

431

Drama The film is inspired by the true story of Bruce Lee’s historic 1965 duel with Wong Jack Man, China’s most famous kung fu master at a time when San Francisco’s Chinatown was controlled by Hong Kong Triads. The story of the match is told from the perspective of Steve Macklin, a young disciple of Lee, who ultimately joins forces with Lee and Wong to battle a vicious band of Chinatown gangsters.

	Media	Author	Review
		Owen Gleiberman Variety	"It huffs and puffs about what a mythic fight this was, yet it bumbles and stumbles when it comes to showing us what happened, and why it mattered (...) [It] is neither a compelling biographical drama nor an exciting martial-arts bash"
		Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter	"Rewatching 'Enter the Dragon' would be a better choice (...) An inferior effort that fails to do justice to both its central character and provocative premise"
		Andrew Parker The Globe and Mail	"'Birth of the Dragon' fails at almost everything it attempts (...) A dull, self-serious affair where everyone speaks in well-crafted, clichéd sound bites instead of realistic dialogue (…) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"
		Noel Murray Los Angeles Times	"Interesting, if corny (...) The plot here is cliché-ridden, and the fight scenes largely unspectacular (...) The complex characterization does make for a better story."
		Bruce Demara Toronto Star	"The result is mostly successful, thanks in large part to two fine performances (...) The fight scenes (...) are well executed and the story, though hoary, is actually a lot of fun (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Glenn Kenny The New York Times	"'Birth of the Dragon' is ambitious: It wants to be a character study (...) But the film never really gets fully juiced until the climax"
		Scout Tafoya rogerebert.com	"A preposterous screenwriting-for-dummies exercise directed with all the flare of a mid-‘90s tourism video (...) There are also gags you see coming a mile away"
		Robert Abele The Wrap	"As alternatingly silly and serious as its mix of wisdom and wallops (...) 'Birth' is nevertheless zippy, B-movie entertainment."

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