Finishing the Game
2007; directed by Justin Lin

For his follow-up to the independent hit Better Luck Tomorrow, writer/director Justin Lin turns his lens towards the subject of "Bruceploitation" in the mockumentary Finishing the Game, which tells an alternate tale of how producers sought to use (or, rather, exploit) the small bit of footage Bruce Lee shot for Game of Death before his death. While the film does bring up some social commentary, it never fails to realize that it is a comedy, and in that sense, it delivers for the most part, especially for those already familiar with the myriad of releases put out in the 1970�s featuring "clones" of Bruce Lee.

Most of Finishing the Game centers around open casting calls, where dozens of hopefuls with stars in their eyes show up to hopefully get their big break in Hollywood. For the most part, Lin concentrates on a handful of characters, such as Breeze Loo (Roger Fan), a B-list actor who has made his living starring in a series of Bruce Lee rip-offs with titles like Enter the Serpent, and Roy Thunder (MC Hammer), an agent who specializes in filling "colored" roles in Hollywood productions.

As with most mockumentaries, it is the characters, rather than the story, that is Finishing the Game's biggest strength. Even though a lot of the acting comes off as amateurish (perhaps this was a stylistic choice by Lin) the characters are still very likeable and fun to watch. Even Breeze Loo, who is the film's defacto on-screen villain via his smarmy and self-centered attitude, ends up seeming like a decent enough guy in the end. Not all of the characters work, though. There are a couple, like Raja (Mousa Kraish), an Indian doctor-turned-actor, whose inclusion seems have been thrown in to get a couple of cheap jokes out, taking the emphasis away from the more interesting characters.

Getting back to the aforementioned social commentary, Lin does delve into some aspects of how Asians are treated in pop culture, most notably through the character of Troy Poon (Dustin Nguyen), whose acting career outside of his "big break" on a short-lived TV show called Golden Gate Guns consisted of bit roles playing Chinese food deliverymen. These sorts of scenes are a bit more deeper and thought-provoking, and show that perhaps Lin could do a "real" documentary about this aspect of American society. But until then, Finishing the Game does a well enough job of getting his point across, and providing a few laughs along the way.

RATING: 6