Cheap Bloodsport (DVD) (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres) (Newt Arnold) Price

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Customer Reviews of Bloodsport

Good for an American martial arts movie
As a fan of martial arts and living in Hong Kong, I've had it pretty good by being in the middle of the action with Jackie Chan and Jet Li and of course, being in Bruce Lee's home ground. So, when I watch movies by guys like Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal, it's so pathetic, it's almost funny. But, at the same time, I must say that this is one entertaining movie (although it doesn't do Hong Kong much justice in terms of forming foreigners' views of what this place is really like). People should know about Frank Dux and even Chong Li (who was played by Bolo Yeung who looks nothing like him) and their contributions to the martial arts.

This is probably JCVD's best movie - he gets to show off his moves (although those jumping spinning split kicks are technically not correct - he leaves his groin entirely open while executing that move), he doesn't have to talk much and for a Western kung-fu movie, those fight scenes were not bad.

If you want a good kung-fu movie, stop here and go to "Who Am I?" by Jackie Chan or "Fist of Legend" by Jet Li. But if you need just one JCVD movie for your kung-fu library, this is the one.

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"Now, I break you! Like I break your friend!"
During the martial-arts craze of the mid-90's, there were few bigger stars than Jean-Claude Van Damme. Though it wasn't a box-office hit during its enitial theatrical run, "Bloodsport", Van Damme's first starring vehicle certainly found its audience on cable and video. "Bloodsport" follows American fighter Frank Dux (Van Damme) as he enters a brutal full-contact tournament known as the Kumatai. Looking back at the movie that I once watched religously with all my friends almost a decade ago, it's probably to safe to say that if you didn't pick up on this one during its time then you probably won't understand it now. It had all the great things you'd expect from a Van Damme movie: Minimal story, cheesy overacting, and tons of random splits. The musical score from Stan Bush and a rather silly perfomance from Donald Gibb are the icing on the cake. Anytime I'm looking to take a trip down memory lane, I toss in this and "Kickboxer" and have my own little JCVD double-feature. Now, if only they could put together a special edition DVD.

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The Frank Dux story is a hoax
That was proven amongst the martial arts community years ago. Being a martial artist myself, I always get a laugh when I read the description of this movie on websites. However, I am giving this movie 4 stars only because of Van Damme and the great fight scenes in this movie. This is Van Damme at a young age and doing all the kicks and moves that he seems to have lost with age. Bloodsport is basically an imitation of "Enter The Dragon" (the greatest martial arts movie ever made) where a lone guy enters a tournament. The theme has been repeated countless times but Bloodsport is one of the better clones. Also be sure to check out Kickboxer, which is even better than Bloodsport!