Review of Bloodsport (1988) by Kevin H — 21 Jan 2008

As the years go by and the world is more subjected to MMA, UFC and K-1 events in the mainstream, the one that started it all had to have been Bloodsport. Think about it, did anyone give a damn about K-1, MMA or anything like that in the early 1980's? Out comes this movie and 20 years later kickboxing has become more popular than regular boxing and wrestling.

Based on true events, Bloodsport centers around a secret underground kickboxing tournement called the Kumite (pronounced Koo-Mitt-Tay) that has been around for thousands of years. Jean Claude Van Damme plays Frank Dux (as in put up your dukes), an American of French decent who stumbles upon an old Chinese martial arts teacher who teaches him the way of the warrior so to speak. Many years later the teacher is near death and Frank pledges to win the Kumite in his honor. Standing in his way is Chong Li (Bolo Yeung) , the current champion along with Helmer and Rawlins (Forrest Whitaker), two American agents assigned to bring Dux back to the US unharmed since its revealed Dux is a captain in the US military and wasn't supposed to be in this thing.

I say the actual Kumite scenes were done well in terms of the actual fighting but the transition and timing was downright awful. In one scene Chong Li snaps Suan Parades (Tong Po from Kickboxer) leg and then the next scene shows Dux fighting someone else with Parades sitting in the stands unharmed. I think the Parades/Chong fight was supposed to be one of the last but it fit better in the music montage so they jumped the gun with it. Later on the big sumo Pumala is visbily shown sitting behind Jackson and Lin, and while he's fighting Dux and Monkey Man you can clearly see him sitting in the same spot while he's supposed to be on the runway. Also, Dux and Chong Li looked to have fought about 10 guys between them in the first 2 days of the tournement yet Ray Jackson (Donald Gibb) fights twice on the first day yet makes it to the last fight of the second day? One last thing, Dux beat his guy in 12 seconds to set the world record and later on I timed a fight where Chong Li beat a black guy in 6 seconds....wouldn't that mean he got his record back? The good news is the actual fighting and different styles more than made up for the clumsy editing and the story lines/sub plot fit well with the overall point. Donald Gibb was hilarious in his role, and its always nice to see Tong Po with hair. Bolo Yeung looks younger than Van Damme and was a short time away from his 50th birthday during the course of filming, I didn't even believe it until I checked the bio....hell he's pushing 75 now and I bet he could make a comeback in one more flick.

I don't want to give away too much but if you want full contact bloodshed and Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds throwing people around one more time, this is the movie for you. Yes there is a love plot between Van Damme and Leah Ayers and if thats not your thing hit the fast forward button, otherwise sit back with your gi and enjoy the movie. The highlight of the movie is Ricardo Morria aka The Monkey Man, you'll know what I mean once you see the movie.

4 out of 5 (1 star off for the bad editing).