Bloodsport (1988)

Director: Newt Arnold

A staple of my youth, this is one of the great "good-bad" movies offered during the 1980s and '90s.

Bloodsport tells the "true story" of mixed martial artist Frank Dux, a U.S. Army officer who took part in the infamous Kumite, an underground fighting competition held in Hong Kong. To honor his recently-deceased martial arts sensei, Senzo Tanaka, Dux enrolls in the Kumite, hoping to fulfill Tanaka's dream for his own son, who had died several years earlier. While evading U.S. government authorities who seek to pull him out of the illegal competition, Dux tears through the competition in the Kumite, including an epic final match against the intimidating and brutal reigning champion, Chong Li.

Bloodsport is a master class in poor plotting, lame scripting, and a lot of really, really bad acting. The cliches are almost endless, the plot holes baffling, and there are only two actors in the whole movie who actually know how to really act. So why do so many people still enjoy it, including me? Two reasons. The main one is the Kumite itself, and a secondary reason is that the movie accidentally fell into the "so bad it's good" zone that is often the mark of cult movies.

Let's get into the "bad." This was the very first starting role for Jean Claude Van Damme, the Belgian muscleman and "fighter" who flirted with being the next big action star in the late 1980s and early '90s. Thanks to his good looks, perfectly chiseled physique, and dazzling athleticism, he was the type of movie actor who many young people either wanted to be or to be having sex with. But it was all too clear from his performance in Bloodsport that acting was far from the forte of the "Muscles from Brussels." With a stilted delivery and odd intonation, it could be painful to see or hear him try to emote. He would get a bit better in this area as his career wore on, but only so much. In Bloodsport, it was still extremely rough. And the rest of the cast is almost universally as bad. The only two actors who come off as skilled pros are the ones who most audiences will recognize from other American movies: Donald Gibb (best known as the iconic "Ogre" from the Revenge of the Nerds movies) and a young Forest Whitaker. But even these legitimately capable actors could only do so much with the tepid script they were given. In a stroke of blind luck, though, the rest of the actors are so bad, and the script so cheesy, that much of it comes off as funny. Unintentionally funny, yes, but funny all the same. The combination of dopey dialog, delivered by bad actors in heavy accents results in tons of hilariously quotable moments.

The plot outside of the Kumite? Forget it. There are more than a few head-scratchers without answers that they're barely worth your time. Why the hell is Senzo Tanaka training his 8-year-old son to take part in a full-contact, underground fighting competition where people are known to have died? Who on earth is this Victor guy who just shows up to "manage" and guide Dux and Jackson? And on it goes. Add to that an uber-cheesy soundtrack and a few laughable "chase scene" segments, and the silliness goes off the charts.

Martial arts movie veteran Bolo Yeung, as the frightening
Chong Li. He's not a sophisticated character by any means,
but he's effective at making you pray that Dux beats him.

But the Kumite tournament itself? Still extremely satisfying to watch, I must say. Firstly, it was only on this most recent viewing that I actually appreciated how good the visuals are in this movie. The camerawork, fight choreography, costumes, and lighting are all excellent. The people and colors pop off the screen, giving it an appealing look to it all. And many of the fighters are very distinctive in their looks, fighting styles, and outfits, giving the Kumite an enjoyable video game feel. More than these, though, is the presentation, structure, and unfolding of the tournament itself. For the first half hour or so, it's mostly a mystery, though we've seen some of the fighters preparing. Once the first fight kicks off, though, we can see that the movie's going to put on a good show. Then, the second fight arrives and we get to see Chong Li in action. Played by longtime martial arts movie villain Bolo Yeung, the Chong Li character is one of the most memorable martial arts villains of all time. The ever-glaring, nearly mute Chong Li (he only has four lines in the whole movie) is like an unstoppable force of fighting destruction. A former bodybuilding champion in his native China, actor Yeung has a strikingly massive physique, and he uses it to play Chong Li as an eerily quiet, menacing force whose sole purpose is to destroy his competition on the Kumite mat. Thanks to fun, measured fight choreography and effective camerawork and editing, Bloodsport gives us fight sequences that are still entertaining.

Does the combat look "real"? Hell no. Unlike more modern fight movies, which often have studied actual mixed martial arts experts and incorporated them into the look and feel of action movies in the last twenty years, Bloodsport is more in line with old school, East Asian kung-fu movies or even pro wrestling. Nobody would actually win a fight trying to pull off the moves seen here. If Frank Dux tried a split-leg, flying roundhouse kick or Chong Li tried a 360-degree backhand against an actual MMA fighter, their clocks would be thoroughly cleaned in about five seconds. Movies like Bloodsport aren't about that. They're more like ballet movies for people who like fantasy violence. Yes, the characters on screen are trying to hurt each other. Badly. But there's a grace, power, and athleticism to the proceedings that can be captivating to watch. Bloodsport gets this part of it so right that it trumps all of the other painfully obvious weaknesses.

So this movie is still plenty of fun. While I've only ever seen about a half dozen of Van Damme's many movies, Bloodsport is probably still the only one that I can enjoy rewatching. Kickboxer I recall being decent, with some of the same strengths and weaknesses, but without the fun tournament structure of Van Damme's first.