Naturally, the mockumentary Finishing The Game: The Search For A New Bruce Lee went unnoticed by moviegoers.

It’s 1973... and Bruce Lee is dead. Shortly before his untimely demise, however, the good Mr. Lee filmed approximately 12 minutes of film from the climax of The Game Of Death - the movie he had hoped would be the ultimate martial arts masterpiece.

In a vain and desperate attempt to realize the true profit potential from the Lee’s final, unused footage, Polytron Pictures producer Martey Kurtainbaum (Sam Bottoms) has tapped the inner-talent of his first-time writer/director son Ronney (Jake Sandvig) to shoot an entire wraparound film and find a Bruce Lee clone to "star" as the lead. Enter the dragon-lady casting director Eloise (Meredith Scott Lynn) and a shitload of untalented hopefuls and wannabes including fellow martial arts actor Breeze Loo (Roger Fan); Cole Kim and his manager/girlfriend Saraghina (Sung Kang and Monique Gabriela Curnen, respectively); Tarrick Tyler (McCaleb Burnett), a guy who claims to be half-Asian despite his blatantly Caucasian features; Troy Poon (Dustin Nguyen), a former TV star turned vacuum salesman; and Raja (Mousa Kraish), a Hindi physician who dreams of stardom.

The laughs start immediately in this film and don’t let up (you may actually find yourself not laughing at times just because you were laughing too hard earlier!) until the final "Ah, to hell with it all!" attitude of the last frame (and wait until you see the "archive footage" of the kung-fu classic Fist Of Führer and short-lived cop show "Golden Gate Guns") and if that isn’t enough to get you to go out and buy this movie NOW, how about special guest appearances from James Franco, M.C. Hammer, porn stars Ron Jeremy and Nautica Thorn (the latter of whom appears completely naked along with several other stand-ins - yes, there’s nudity, too, kids!), and even the familiar voice of George Takei (to name a few).

For being (literally) a no-budget film shot in 19 days, I really have to hand it to director Justin Lin and his crew for managing to give this film a wonderfully authentic 70s feel to it: if I didn’t know any better (and some say I don’t), I would swear that this movie actually could have been filmed in the disco era (in fact, the only truly genuine thing that might take away the nostalgic look are some obviously modern-looking beer bottles). I guess it’s a good thing that those hair/clothing styles came back when they did.

Presentation
The picture for Finishing The Game: The Search For A New Bruce Lee isn’t exactly crisp - but it’s not meant to be, either: the "archive footage" from the phony, onscreen films is presented as grainy and scratched-up (some of said footage was even filmed with cameras from the 70s). That said, the movie looks pretty damn good.

The main feature is brought to us in a glorious sounding 2-Channel Stereo. There is no 5.1 Surround (which also could be deliberate on Lin’s part - but is probably more of a budget thing). Optional English (SDH) and Spanish Subtitles are included.

Extras
There aren’t many movies that I want to watch immediately again after the first viewing (hell, most movies I watch don’t even make it to a second viewing), but Finishing The Game: The Search For A New Bruce Lee is one of them… so it’s a good thing that there’s a very upbeat, amusing Audio Commentary from writer/director Lin, writer Josh Diamond, and composer Brian Tyler (a very talented individual whose score here is so kick-ass that you will probably want to buy the entire soundtrack - and it’s available from iTunes). Apart from their wit, the intrepid filmmakers also give us a bit of guerilla moviemaking wisdom (a recommended listen).

Next up on the Special Features menu are three Behind-the-Scenes Outtakes (a.k.a. cast and crew goofing off) entitled On Set Mayhem (9:10).

Eight Deleted Scenes (17:15) are also included. These cut bits manage to resurrect two completely dropped subplots: the first of which features an at-large serial killer known as "Take-Out Charlie" and whose alleged Asian heritage threatens to derail the entire making of the film (look for the great Lyrics Born as a Chinese restaurateur) and the second subplot has three celebrity impersonators (including Lin regulars Wilmer Calderon and Jason J. Tobin) trying to sneak across the Mexico border into the United States. These Deleted Scenes have optional Audio Commentary by Lin, Diamond, and Tyler as well.

By the by Genius guys, you spelled "canceled" wrong on the Deleted Scenes page: there’s only one "l" in it (but it’s a common mistake, so don’t hate yourselves for it).

The final Extras are a Music Video for "Satisfaction" by Far*East Movement (4:17) which includes a gorgeous busty knockout of a woman, and the Theatrical Trailer (2:27). The DVD also opens with several other Previews: Chronicle Of An Escape; How To Rob A Bank; You Kill Me; and This Is England.

The Bottom Line
The only thing that pisses me off is that this Sundance Award Winning movie maybe played on three screens in the U.S. during it’s entire theatrical run (American audiences and distributors are really fucking stupid), but that galaxy-sized error in judgment ("You offended me. You offended my family.") will not stop me from placing Finishing The Game: The Search For A New Bruce Lee proudly next to other underrated classics like Office Space, Orgazmo, and Free Enterprise.