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Finishing the Game (2007)

tomatometer

35

Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 22

Though Justin Lin's premise is precocious enough, the sight gags and comic timing are tired in this mockumentary about Asian typecasting in the 1970s.

33

Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 6

Though Justin Lin's premise is precocious enough, the sight gags and comic timing are tired in this mockumentary about Asian typecasting in the 1970s.

audience

47

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 2,612

My Rating

Movie Info

Better Luck Tomorrow and Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift director Justin Lin takes a comic look at a longstanding bit of cinema mythology with this mockumentary exploring the making of Bruce Lee's unfinished final film, Game of Death. When martial arts star Lee died in 1973 after having shot roughly 20 minutes of the full-length feature, director Robert Clouse vowed to complete the film using a Bruce Lee look-alike. Though the film was eventually released into theaters in 1978, fans continue

Unrated, 1 hr. 28 min.

Comedy

Josh Diamond, Justin Lin

Jun 24, 2008

IFC First Take

Cast

All Critics (34) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (22)

Intermittently funny at best, but mostly full of dead air.

October 26, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A very funny, equal-opportunity broadside that targets Asian stereotyping, and not just by non-Asians.

October 19, 2007 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A genially scattershot mockumentary.

October 5, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A faux documentary grounded in ethnicity and mired in absurdity, Finishing the Game is a terrific idea still waiting to be fashioned into a real movie.

October 5, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ragged, spotty but shrewdly conceived.

October 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Newsday | Comment
Newsday
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film completely misses what should have been its real target -- the filming of Game of Death, a martial-arts campfest worthy of Edward D. Wood Jr.

October 3, 2007 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You can easily tell how great a time everyone is having, and it's infectious.

June 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

This tedious mockumentary isn't even as entertaining as one of Ed Wood's actual films, and once-promising director Justin Lin has some karma to square for fumbling such a sure thing.

November 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

What exactly he's trying to say about Bruce Lee's fame and impact or the banal reality of genre moviemaking is unclear at best.

November 15, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The pace is flat, the celebrity cameos go nowhere, and the smugness of Lin's observations of Asian-Americans and Hollywood smothers the comedy.

November 9, 2007 Comment
Salt Lake Tribune

Misses more comic targets than it hits.

November 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | Comment
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

There's about five minutes of funny in Finishing the Game, which leaves 83 minutes of "Oh, that same joke again, huh?"

November 1, 2007 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | Comment
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Finishing the Game serves up a kick-ass comedy about a dead martial arts star, starving actors and the Hollywood system.

October 26, 2007 Comment
KPBS.org

The breezy tone and obvious fun being had by the cast make Finishing the Game a slight, low-key cool cinematic essay on identity politics.

October 25, 2007 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | Comment
L.A. Weekly

[T]here's little intriguing or surprising...

October 25, 2007 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | Comment
Flick Filosopher

... too thin to sustain itself, even at a modest 83 minutes.

October 24, 2007 Comment

The premise was so golden and in front of our noses for so long, it's amazing that is has taken this long for someone to do it. I'm still upset that it wasn't me.

October 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

It's a wasted idea.

October 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

The main reason that I didn't like Justin Lin's new film Finishing the Game is because I wasn't sure at any time what he was trying to make...

October 9, 2007 Full Review Source: IGN Movies | Comment
IGN Movies

Besmirching Bruce Lee's name like this should be a punishable offense.

October 8, 2007 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comment
ColeSmithey.com

What little potential there is ends up squandered within nanoseconds; as both a parody and a polemic, the film is finished before it's barely begun.

October 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

It feels as though everyone involved was having a rollicking good time, and while the film itself is wildly uneven, Lin and company get in a few pointed jabs at Hollywood fatuousness and self-delusion, cultural stereotypes and '70s fashions.

October 5, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Call it a comic documentary, a true-life comedy, or a Hollywood satire, but however you karate chop this one, it's a kicky, clever, highly amusing romp.

October 5, 2007 Comment
Reel.com

Finishing The Game doesn't get anywhere that Hollywood Shuffle didn't go to first.

October 5, 2007 Full Review Source: AV Club | Comment
AV Club
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Finishing the Game

At first glance the plot sounds interesting, but at the same time, may be a bit misleading. One may come to expect a serious documentary about replacing Bruce Lee for finishing the Game of Death. Instead the viewer is given a full on mockumentary.What is a mockumentary? Basically, it is a comedic documentary and

May 21, 2008
skactopus
Justin Y

Super Reviewer

A spastic satire, as producers struggle to replace Bruce Lee.

June 7, 2007
wbgoose13

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee (DE)
  • Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee (UK)
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