"Game of Death" was theatrically released in 1978, five years after Bruce Lee had passed. Since his death, numerous "Bruce Lee clone" movies flooded the US market, hoping to cash in on Bruce's name and success. Unfortunately, most of these attempts were futile. Bruce had been working on "Game of Death" prior to filming "Enter the Dragon", but postponed work until after the latter film was complete.

After Bruce's death, the producers scrambled to salvage the remaining Game of Death footage and turn it into a movie. Unfortunately, Bruce's notes and script ideas for the film were still in the early phases, so the producers had little to work with. "Game of Death" was eagerly anticipated by the public, who had been clamoring for its release since "Enter the Dragon".

Unfortunately, the end result was a poor quality film that bore little if no semblance to Bruce's original story idea. A stand-in for Bruce Lee was used for the bulk of the film. The film featured rehashed footage of Lee from his previous films, as if to fool the audience. The results are horribly pathetic. Adding insult to injury was the tasteless decision to use footage from Bruce Lee's actual funeral within the movie.

Perhaps the only saving grace is the last 10 minutes of the film, where the audience is treated to the real Bruce Lee, by way of surviving footage from the original movie. These scenes are absolutely amazing, with a series of incredible fights between Lee and various martial artists, climaxing with an all out battle royale between Bruce and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. These scenes alone make watching "Game of Death" somewhat tolerable.