Bloodmatch

MOVIE #1,868 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 08.01.24 ALBERT & AKERMAN: AN AUTEURIST STUDY IN CONTRAST + CONTINUUM Another cheapo quickie in the Deceit mold, Pyun utilized the sets from Kickboxer 2 to film another feature film in a matter of days. And where Deceit wonderfully transcended those limitations, this one falls FLAT on its face from the word go. A dozen films in, it’s the least inspired and least entertaining movie he’s made by a wide margin. One of his favorite actors shows up in the lead (Thom Matthews) as a character named Brick Bardo, the famous recycled moniker that Pyun has used in four or five films thus far. I wish this was some kind of Bat signal indicating that we were getting top shelf Pyun, but Bloodmatch is definitive proof that this isn’t the case. Brick Bardo be damned.

The brother's revenge plot here mirrors both Kickboxer and Kickboxer 2 in such a way that it's either pure, unadulterated laziness or Pyun is making some kind of statement on the stale, repetitive nature of these fighter action flicks. (I know it’s the latter but humor me, folks — there’s not a whole lot to discuss here!) This is the first time where one of Pyun's screenwriter pseudonyms (the scribe is credited as "K. Hannah") seemed like a good idea: he absolutely should not want to be associated with this…


The fights are repetitive but well-filmed and decently choreographed (by famed martial artist/actor Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, who is also a character) but as I’ve mentioned before, they rarely work as a standalone element in cinema for me anyway. And the inevitable plot twist is stupider than I could have ever imagined (Mathews is actually the deceased brother, who never really died and got major plastic surgery so that’s why nobody recognized). It’s so bad it’s ALMOST good. Almost.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,867 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,869 ⫸

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Bloodmatch is a 1991 martial-arts film directed by Albert Pyun and starring Thom Mathews, Hope Marie Carlton, Marianne Taylor, Vincent Klyn, Michel Qissi, and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez. It was released on May 1, 1991.