CompleteMartialArts.com - Bloodsport
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List Price: $12.97
Our Price: $7.99
Your Save: $ 4.98 ( 38% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton, Forest Whitaker
Directed By: Newt Arnold
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790765402
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0790765403
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2004-06-01
Running Time: 92
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1988-02-26
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Editorial Reviews:
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Kung Fu expert Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a martial arts master who arrives in Hong Kong to compete in the Kumite, a violent championship fighting contest.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Comment: This is the finest film ever made. You will sing. You will cry. You will not laugh or you will be destroyed.
I eagerly await the prequel, Bloodbirth, currently in production telling the story of a young Frank Dux born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his throat. Stan Dux, Frank's once kindhearted sweater knitting father, blames his wife for the accident. Stan begins drinking heavily. His drinking becomes out of control and culminates in a scene at his son's 6th birthday party. Upset and disoriented after a particularly viscous round in the moonwalker, he vomits on his boss's wife before challenging him to arm wrestle. When his boss declines, he runs inside only to return moments later wearing a karate gui and sporting the $300,000 conquistador helmet he had appraised at antiques roadshow. He is greeted with the silent stares of concerned parents while the voice of Rick Derringer ominously begins blaring "I am a real American" from the stereo. From the front porch, he surveys the lawn and chooses his target. Like a man possessed, he charges Tinkles the clown, headbutting him into a coma before turning his attention to the pony. The pony, already skittish from the clown's beating rears and dropping a child to the grass but thankfully, before the pony is able to trample the child, he is greeted with a ferocious scissor kick to the spine that sends him to his knees. Chaos ensues. Parents and children screaming run from the scene, trampling the bloodied unconscious clown, the pony howling in his death throes as Stan, enraged at the pony's lack of fight, continues to brutally scissor kick until the midget, hired by Luvable Hugables petting zoo, wearing an all black t-shirt with white letters in all caps spelling ENFORCER across his chest and a crossbow full of tranq darts is able to subdue him. His marriage is now on the rocks and in the depths of a 72 hour Sparks and Grey Goose binge, he begins to beat his wife Mary blaming her for the birthing incident that resulted in their son's motor skills becoming so impaired that he speaks with a Belgian accent. Little did Stan know...that on that dark day where he murdered his wife by repeatedly slamming her head into a refrigerator door, that the accident had actually imbued Frank with super strength and reflexes rivaling those of legendary quarterback Jeff George.
Onto the film.
A young American boy (played by Dustin Diamond) mysteriously wearing a New York Giants Shirt and a San Francisco Giants cap is peer pressured into breaking into an aging Vietnamese man's home. The Vietnamese man, a noted Samurai warrior, is so impressed by young Frank's love of all things Giant that decides to teach him the way of the Samurai. After many days of training, Frank has grown into a noted CIA agent and gained super powers through utilization of an intense kung-fu focus that allows him to sense attacks while serving tea blindfolded and the ability to capture koi with his bare hands, also while blindfolded. One might wonder why the early plot development has such a focus on fighting while blindfolded.....but that's because you are stupid.
Frank is later summoned to the Kumite, a world where violence and intrigue are mingled with casual sex and even more intrigue. I'll stop here as I don't want to take you any further into this modern take on Shakespeare's Hamlet but suffice to say that while most movies flounder and fall short after such an epic opening, Bloodsport is a non stop thrill ride that will have you swearing that each scene is the greatest moment of your life until you reach the next one and gives the whispered words "Mateeee..." dominion over Citizen Kane's "Rosebud" for cinematic significance.
If you could take all the music ever made and compress it using "science" it would be but a flickering candle to the sun that is the soundtrack for this movie. Bishop's Steal the Night makes angels weep, but be careful of the setting you are in while listening to Fight to Survive as without the accompanying video to focus your mind, you may go into a rage so powerful that you enter the telephone lines ala the lawnmower man.
If you have never seen this movie, bathe and shave your whole body first so that you can be properly reborn and remember to ask yourself...WWJCVDD
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Comment: This is one of my favourite martial arts movies.
In my opinion, Van Damme's first three or four movies are his best.
Bloodsport has well choreographed fighting, and is actually based on a true story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The one that put JCVD on the map!
Comment: The Jean Claude Van Damme Review Matrix (JCVD-RM)
1.Who is he? Frank Dux, American martial arts expert
2.Which family member/friend must be avenged? His friend Ray gets beatdown and ends up in the hospital
3.Does he take his shirt off? He has his shirt off nearly the entire movie
4.Does he have sex with a C-List actress? Yes. Some cute, but anonymous blond.
5.Is there a tournament? Only the baddest tournament in the world: The Kumite
6.Is training needed for this tournament? No...he's already awesome
7.Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? Several times
8.Does he punch someone in the balls? Let's just say he puts an unfortunate sumo wrestler's balls about a foot higher than normal
9.Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? Yes, and nobody dodges them
10.Is his enemy unbeatable? Chong Li (Bolo Yeung) holds all the records, has killed people in the tournament, and makes other black belts wet themselves...so, yeah
11.Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? Chong Li throws salt in his eyes and Dux is blinded
12.Does he win? Not only does he win, but he forces Chong Li to say matte
This one has it all folks, and it's probably JCVD's best movie. He broke on the scene, showed moves that no other action star had at the time. This movie is an action classic, inspired by Bruce Lee's phenomenal Enter the Dragon, and a must-see every time it's on TV.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Sport Not For Everyone
Comment: "Bloodsport" is a milestone for Jean-Claude Van Damme: much like "Conan the Barbarian" for Arnold Schwarzenegger and "Rocky" for Sly Stallone, the dramatized kinda-maybe-true tale of Frank Dux's winning of the enigmatic Kumite tournament proved to be his stepping stone into mainstream cinema, and would help secure him as one of the biggest action heroes of the late-80s/early-90s period.
Like most action films of its time, "Bloodsport" is technically and theatrically flawed, but unlike most other action films, it fails to cover for its mistakes effectively; leaving cool, violent combat outweighed by an unpolished story and some of the worst acting seen this side of the 80s.
Like any tournament-centred action film, the weakness of "Bloodsport" lies in the fact that all of its fighting is restricted to pre-assigned "fight times" and appears nowhere else in the movie. Granted, the choreography and intensity of these fights is infinitely superior to many a commercial beat-`em-up flick, but the fact that they are so very designated leaves the rest of the film without much excitement at all, because you know that nothing is going to happen until Van Damme steps into the ring.
And concerning Van Damme...
The film begins with several shots of the diverse fighters training for the contest: a monkey kung fu fighter chops coconuts in half, a giant tosses huge sacks, bad-guy Bolo Yeung ("Enter the Dragon") breaks blocks of ice, etc.; I can't help but imagine what this film would've been like if it followed the paths of more participants than just Van Damme, whose personal odyssey is just a tad boring. Would it have been better than the star's early attempts at acting, the meaningless love story between him and Leah Ayres ("The Burning"), or the absolutely atrocious flashbacks of Dux's supposed childhood? - I don't know, but nothing about the given plot, besides the fighting, is in the least bit intriguing, even for an action movie.
To be fair, this is a genuine cult film, and is standard viewing for any fan of action movies...if only for the rough half hour devoted to the fights. Give it a rent if you haven't seen it, and buy it if you're a fan of Van Damme or Bolo Yeung...but if you have a phobia of lousy acting or melodrama, steer clear.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Classic
Comment: This is one cheesy movie that anyone can enjoy and wont ever forget.
It is so stupid, yet it comes off fun and hilarious to the point where if you even watch 10 mins of this movie you will see it to the end everytime. Even people who take movies seriously will enjoy this.
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