Bloodsport (DVD)

BLOODSPORT Hands up who likes Jean-Claude Van Damme? Is that a hand at the back? No, none of you have the decency to admit beyond your better judgement that Van Damme is a bit of a legend? Sure, he's a smug git of the highest order, has limited acting range and has to shoulder the burden for the creation of the god-awful Double Team, yet the mainstay of his flicks remain eminently enjoyable. Indeed, even Cyborg was a video rental number one for eons during Van Damme's heyday; incredible considering Cyborg is mostly pants! But with a regular flash of an arse-cheek, ballerina styled fight scenes, a cheesy soundtrack, some homoerotic guy love and his signature ...  Read the complete review

Bloodsport is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's (The Muscles from Brussels) earliest films, and as such, we get to see the raw martial arts talent he has exposed to its true potential without the worry of having Hollywood and his agent taking over. Van Damme was just emerging on the scene in 1988 when this came out, and it launched him immediately onto the action movie scene, with Arnie providing a nice buffer for him to combat off screen in terms of muscly action movie popularity contests. Bloodsport gives us the most common of martial arts basic plotlines: a revenge tale, as Van Damme's character Frank Dux, a rebel taken in as a child by a sensai who taught him ...  Read the complete review

For those of us who grew up in the late 1980s or early 1990s, there was an inescapable genre of film that constantly found it’s way onto TV screens, either via rentals from the local video shop(you rarely actually seen these films for sale) or TV broadcasting them(this was in the days when TV showed things other than home makeover programs), and have, as such, become almost a sub-Pop Culture amongst us. The genre of film is the Action movie. Now I know you are probably thinking “what? they still make action movies”, but I’m talking about a specific kind of action movie. Nowadays they are called Direct-To-Video(DTV), for self explanatory reasons, but back in ...  Read the complete review

Blood sport is by far Van Damme's best film. The film is based loosely on a true story of Frank Dux. Van Damme goes to compete in the Cumate, which is a multi national full contact martial arts tournament. The great thing to see is all the different fighting styles from places like Africa, Japan, China, the Middle East and America. There is even a wrestler in it!! The film is more or less all fight scenes, which is great for fans of this genre. Forest Whitiker makes an appearance trying to track down Van Damme because he has gone AWOL from a military base. The acting is substandard but that's not what the film is about. A similar ...  Read the complete review

'The true story of an American ninja.' Back in the late 80's Van Damme appeared in a series of films that played up to his kickboxing background. Bloodsport was one of them. Far from being a talented actor, Van Damme was able to play to his strengths - delivering an ace kick to the chops. Bloodsport has a very simple premise; men go to Hong Kong to beat the living crap out of each other. Van Damme plays Frank Dux, an American that travels to Hong Kong to fight in a tournament known as the Kumite. The Kumite has to be held in secret due to fighters killing each other. It's apparently based on a true story, with Frank Dux an actual freestyle ...  Read the complete review