Bloodsport

 

                                        Another classic martial arts film, in preparation of the latest Mortal Kombat game release, is a cult classic that launched the stardom of Jean Claude Van Damme title Bloodsport. Van Damme stars as a real life American martial artist who entered a deadly martial arts tournament in Hong Kong. Like, Enter the Dragon, the creators of MK borrow a lot of elements from Bloodsport, most notably the character of Johnny Cage is purely based purely on Jean Claude Van Damme's character on Bloodsport from his fighting style of play to even his infamous punch to the man's nuts and berries. Bloodsport is defiantly one of those films that's entertaining from start to finish but most notably have the pure 80's action vibes that it contains from every mindless action film from the 80's but will get to that later right now let's dive deep into Bloodsport.

                                        U.S. soldier Frank Dux (Van Damme) has come to Hong Kong to be accepted into the kumite, a highly secret and extremely violent martial arts competition. while trying to gain access into the underground world of clandestine fighters, he also must avoid military officers who consider him to be AWOL. After enduring difficult training and beginning a romance with a journalist, Frank is given the opportunity to fight. But can he survive?

                                         Now there were moments in Enter the Dragon that was a little on the side of being unintentionally funny, this movie the beginning of the film was a hundred percent when it comes to being unintentionally funny, but full-on cringe. And I get it sure, when it comes to martial arts film-making back then you maybe or have to make what you have and granted there's not a whole lot of research I can find in terms of the production behind Bloodsport, But I would think that you would most certainly need a boom mic when it comes to majority of the dialogue and the most infamous part of the film is the origin of Frank Dux or flashback, although it wasn't all of it that was cringe but it was the scenes where Frank was a kid and I don't know if there really was a boom mic in the production but the kids acting was just awful and is just, well honestly there's no way to describe how bad it is. Now, before I dive deep into the movie I should add that yes the movie is shockingly based on the real life Frank Dux who was a real life martial artist moreover was an actual Marine and was involved in a lot of CIA covert missions more importantly, he really studied ninjutsu at a young age under the teachings of Senzo Tanaka, so a lot of those elements in the film were true no doubt unfortunately there were some elements that we're not real, for which yeah it’s a lot of that is Hollywood writing as always and also Dux claims a lot of interesting aspects about him that are interesting that even I never know but thought were interesting, and he claims that he owes a lot of his success being born handicapped and he says "I became accustomed to great pain and adversity at a very young age because my feet went 180 degrees in the wrong direction. To get them forward, I wore braces that moved them a little bit everyday", so for a guy who had struggles at a young age and to become the warrior that he is now is cool. The other interesting thing he points out is that any of us can be a Ninja for which I hardly doubt I can really be a Ninja with the physical shape I am now, but in his own words "Ninja is like a janitor in that it's just a job title. The misconception is, you don't have to do anything special or know how to do anything special to be a ninja" and deep down the way he says it is defiantly interesting when you think about it furthermore would it be fact or fiction? Who knows in all fairness but without a doubt is in interesting concept to think about. Speaking of Frank Dux teacher the Senzo Tanaka, the actor who plays the master is the very same actor who was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Roy Chiao and here's the interesting thing on how I picked that up I didn't need much info on the guy I only needed a picture to say "holy crap it’s that guy in that one movie", and even the actor Chiao does a great job in the movie moreover playing the master who see's potential in Van Damme's character moreover I hope that's his real voice in the thirty minutes of screen time he's in, which again HOPEFULLY. Without a doubt this is a cult classic but more importantly in entertaining movie, though there a lot of the subplots in the movie that just seem way too confusing to have like Forrest Whitaker and his partner are tasked of bringing back Van Damme back to the U.S. because they didn't want him to get hurt or killed at the Kumite which I don't quite understand why they would be concerned of a guy who is in tip top shape and they're concerned about him getting killed all because he's some sort of Captain America, for which really the United States Government or Covert opts don't give a crap about who lives and who dies though I'm over exaggerating I'll admit but really how would they seriously be so concerned about one man. Which of course the writers are trying to create some drama in the film but really when you write some drama, you need to add some logic to or else it becomes confusing. Bloodsport is an entertaining movie from start to finish, moreover is defiantly one of the best Jean Claude Van Damme movies of all time which doesn't say much of course mainly because if I had to list other movies that I can look at in Van Damme's career it would be Bloodsport, Street Fighter and Universal Soldier, and Expendables 2 because he does a great job playing the bad guy, and all of that a side other 80's action stars beside Stallone and the Governator have a few classics, but really Bloodsport is a movie I would most certainly recommend but I can also point at and say that this was Van Damme's best.