Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s a new year. This means new experiences, new beginnings, and changes all around. One of the changes that probably appeals to college students in Illinois is the legalization of weed.

Let’s face it, everyone was looking forward to not having to buy pot that’s been in some guys pocket for twelve hours. So, to celebrate the occasion, I’ve reviewed an appropriately strange movie to enjoy while your edible kicks in.

 I present the 1977 martial arts movies, The Dragon Lives Again, perhaps the strangest martial arts movie to ever exist.

The plot itself is a doozy. The basic gist is that Bruce Lee ends up in the underworld (this was made after the real Bruce Lee’s death, real tasteful.

In the movie, he is played by impersonator Bruce Leung) and fights a bunch of copyrighted characters, like James Bond and The Godfather (he is only ever referred to as The Godfather, he acts and looks nothing like Vito Corleone), as well as Clint Eastwood, who are plotting to stage coup in the Underworld to overthrow its corrupt king. Luckily. Bruce doesn’t have to do any of this alone, as he gets the assistance of The Underworlds people, The One Armed Swordsman, and Popeye.

Before you read through that paragraph again, I just want to assure you, you have in fact read that correctly.  The movie is intentionally strange, as it’s part martial-arts  and part absurdist comedy. 

The Dragon Lives Again is one of those movies that you have to see to believe. The sheer unadulterated insanity of this movie, from the opening credits, in which Bruce kicks a bullet out of the air, to the Alladin-esque magic carpet ending, and everything in between, makes it a gem.

Aside from the general insanity, the movie itself is objectively bad in almost every sense. The story is nonsensical, the characters and their motives don’t line up, and the movies dubbing is utterly laughable.

In spite of this, however, the movie still manages to be supremely entertaining. The movie is so absurd and audacious with its blatant copyright violations. The plot  has more holes in it than swiss cheese that eventually, you just stop caring and watch to see what strange things will happen next.

Thankfully, the movie has a quick pace. It ensures that whatever happens next, you will get to it quickly, and leaves little time for boring filler. It just acts as a non-stop barrage of fever-dream imagery and something a child would make up with his action figures.

The only thing holding this movie back from being a must-see for any bad movie connoisseur, is that the movie is well aware of its unusual traits.

As I said before, the movie is aware of its existence as a comedy film, which dampers the luncacy a bit. After all, in comedy films you would expect strange, absurd things to happen, especially in a parody that throws in everything but the kitchen sink. The movie would have been impossible to make otherwise.

That being said, most of the jokes work, and the quick pace is enough to carry the rest of the film. If you want to question your sanity just a bit, check it out. What I have described is only a fragment of the absurdity.