Bloodsport *** (1988, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres) – Classic Movie Review 8128

Director Newt Arnold’s fairly rousing, surprisingly watchable 1988 cheaply made martial arts action thriller Bloodsport stars the athletic young Jean-Claude Van Damme as real-life American martial artist Frank Dux, the first American to win the oriental challenge of the Kumite endurance contest. Dux quits the US Army to compete in a fight-to-the-death martial arts tournament in Hong Kong.

Bloodsport is as brutal as expected from the title, and it is effectively and convincingly made, with advice from Dux himself.

Bloodsport is notable for finding ‘The Muscles from Brussels’ Van Damme (born in Brussels, Belgium, on 18 October 1960) making his mark as an exciting new action hero, or international martial arts sensation, as the poster helpfully puts it.

Also in the cast are Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton, Forest Whitaker, Roy Chiao, Philip Chan and Bolo Yeung.

It is written by Sheldon Lettich (story and screenplay), Christopher Cosby (screenplay) and Mel Friedman (screenplay).

It was a much-needed nice little earner for Cannon International. Costing $1,100,000, it grossed $11,806,000 in the US.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8128

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