Funny, confident, charismatic and graceful, Bruce Lee was a 24-carat movie star. Most of his films, however (the not-included-here Enter The Dragon is the arse-kicking exception), were brass-plated at best.

The Big Boss, Way Of The Dragon and Fist Of Fury are crammed with tooth-grindingly dumb slapstick, clichéd set-ups and some really, really bad acting from the hammy Hong Kong bit-parters that studio Golden Harvest surrounded Lee with. But despite what blinkered aficionados claim, these dated films simply provide a framework for Lee's performances in general and his hypnotic, brilliant combat set-pieces in particular. The latter make them must-buys, even if the rest is fast-forward fodder. Plus, these are all uncut versions of the movies, featuring the trademark nunchaku fights that the BBFC has finally decided are safe for us to see.

And Game Of Death? Using unfinished footage for Lee's final film, Golden Harvest cobbled together a dumb thriller using Lee lookalikes and outtakes from the other movies. That thumping noise? Lee spinning and roundhouse-kicking in his grave...

DVD Extras:

There's some really dreary gap-filling stuff here (oodles of talking-head docs with nobodies), but there are gems, too. The audio commentaries by martial-art movie expert Bey Logan are chatty and info-packed, and the truckload of stuff with Lee student Dan Inosanto (including a Jeet Kun Do martial-arts seminar and reminiscences about filming the Game Of Death nunchaku battle with Bruce) will have you itching to learn the art of the fight. The inclusion of a Collector's Edition book adds info-value - but best of all is a reconstruction of 40 exhilarating minutes of footage from Game Of Death, using previously lost clips cut together following Lee's notes. The martial-art equivalent of Orson Welles' original version of Touch Of Evil, it's worth buying the set just for that.