Bloodsport

MOVIE #1,357 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 02.08.24 The Cannon logo: a mark of excellence, and I am uninformed on the matter, frankly. But I trust in JCVD — albeit also uninitiated — completely. WWJCVDD. Forest Whitaker is in this (interesting). Three screenwriters. Shower escape. Everyone has taken acting classes at the school of JCVD, which seems appropriate and elevates our boy coolly. Coolily? Look at this damn sword stealing boy who is a Giants fan: a real GIANTS fan. I'm taking football (New York) AND baseball (San Francisco). Geography doesn't matter to the true Giants fan. He gets his brim chopped off, accordingly…

Just realized we're in a flashback. That Giants fan is Him! By gawd. From sword-stealing sports fan to martial arts master: a tale as old as time. Hiroshima killed his mentor's first family. Do-over family didn't work out either. JCVD is like I'm right here, dude. Third time's a charm. All's fair. No single style, a hybrid montage on multiple levels. The Bloodsport movies are somebody's favorite movies and this cannot be denied. Catch a goldfish (doesn't seem hard) and kick with a blindfold (OK now how 'bout tea time?). I’ll never love but I respect it. At least I think I do. Also, the first eSports movie?...


I am watching these because of James Hong — who appears in the second and third installment of the franchise — and I couldn’t simply jump right in there: I had to watch all FOUR of the Bloodsport movies (I drew the line at Lady Bloodfight which is simply not canon! Also, I am an ardent meninist. My main problem here is that I’m just infinitely bored by the fighting scenes, also there's way less blood in this sport of blood than I would have anticipated. Look at this mat, is that the amount of blood you'd expect for a sport called blood?...


The stakes are pretty low in this, which is somehow based on a true story (I’m not looking into it). The FBI agents try halfheartedly to get JCVD to come home and then end up cheering him on in the final fight which he wins for both his former mentor and his big galoot of a friend (who I was sure they were setting up as the villain when he first appeared on screen). It's basically fine. But what isn't fine is that I have to watch three more of these. “Have” and "to” are both words. Can’t argue with JCVD though…

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,356 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,358 ⫸

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Bloodsport is a 1988 American martial arts sports action film directed by Newt Arnold and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Leah Ayres, Forest Whitaker, Donald Gibb, Roy Chiao and Bolo Yeung. The film centers on Frank Dux (Van Damme), a United States Army Captain and ninjutsu practitioner, who competes in an underground full-contact martial arts tournament called the Kumite in Hong Kong. Based on Dux's real-life claims the movie was marketed as a true story. It was one of Van Damme's first lead roles and showcased his abilities, launching his career as a mainstream action star. It was released on February 26, 1988.