Product: Bloodsport [VHS] (1988)
Rating: 5.0
A True Classic Which Makes Me Miss the 1980s
With today's Hollywood seemingly running out of original ideas and the spew of so-called Old School Action movies this year: The Losers, The A-Team (which isn't really old school as they've used CGI in places) and The Expendables (message to Stallone and his representatives: Please don't ruin my adolescent years by making this a girly PG-13!)- it's a pleasure to revisit The Muscles from Brussels, Jean-Claude Van Damme or JVCD, in what is arguably a movie that is 70% action and 30% story. The premise is that Jean's Frank Dux (Dukes on whose story this is based on...even I had forgotten that fact) wants to take part in Kumite (the Bloodsport of the title), to honour his not-so-well master, Tanaka (Roy Chiao). Frank's an army man and against the wishes of his superiors, flies out to Hong Kong (hotly pursued by Forest Whitaker & his faithful sidekick, Kato - just kidding!) Well, you know the rest from there, as I'm sure other Amazon folk have synopsosised this to death!Admittedly, the movie has moments of bad acting, BUT that adds gravitas and lends a certain charm to the whole proceedings. This is after all, the glorious 1980s, where money was more readily available and even the so-called low budget fare like this (made and distributed by Cannon...I miss those guys! Did they later become Golan Globus?) - looked expensive and colourful, too. Even more impressive is the fact there are no wire-work sequences at all (compare it to the fact that in a gym, old school free weights are better than using crappy machines which can damage you some more!) and none of the choppy, quick editing that's so prevalent in today's actioners (Paul Greengrass, are you reading this, Sir?). In fact, I would say the last decent martial arts I've seen in the last 20 years are "Perfect Weapon" with Jeff Speakman (why hasn't that seen the light-of-day on DVD?) and 1997's Drive with Mark Dacascos.All too often, you hear the term "a man's film" bandied around, but this for me is up there with the Die Hards, Lethal Weapons and Commandos! I love the genuine onscreen chemistry between Van Damme & Donald Gibb's Ray Jackson - and even after they've declared their undying devotion to each other, with Ray declaring: "Anytime, any place, if you ever need me...I'll be there", that to me, is the non-gay, ultimate Man Love declaration, right there in your face, hahaha! Whatever you think of Tom Cruise, Top Gun definitely spawned the whole 1980s "You can be my Wingman" mentality (let me take a minute here to breathe, I'm just getting emotional again...) Which reminds me, I need to book my place for 80s throwback comedy Hot Tub Time Machine!Another vital component of 80s film culture is the obligatory pretty blonde...here played with perfection by Leah Ayres. Yes, she's a tad ditzy and allows her character to become the center of attention for grown-up men to fight over her, but who cares? She's drop-dead gorgeous, her hair is gloriously permed and at least she has a natural body which makes her dresses look sooooo, mmmm! It was also a joy to know that Stan Bush lent his vocal talents to the Official Soundtrack, after doing the same thing for the Transformers animated movie. Man, just hearing his songs have got me pumped-up! Speaking of which, I thought Jean-Claude nailed his death stare right-on-cue, even if his opponents were a deadly pile of bricks! I reckon they should have given Bolo Yeung's man-breasts an extra screen credit, which at times, seemed to involuntarily do their own acting! But Bolo, what a legend and what a good sport for playing chilling bad guys.Loud synthesizers,dazzling action sequences and a great location (Hong Kong under British rule), no wonder Bloodsport is considered an all-time classic. This Blu-ray release is stunning and didn't think they could make an 80s classic look so fresh again. Along with Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme should definitely be ranked along those guys for epitomising the 80s (and 90s to a lesser degree). I need to devote a weekend to watching pure 80s gold, such as No Retreat, No Surrender; Weird Science, Rocky, Terminator, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Rambo, etc. That'll be one pizza, Dr. Pepper and all the Man-roars to go, please!! And if Al Leong wants to make another cameo, that's OK with me too!