Product: Bloodsport [VHS] (1988)
Rating: 3.0
Age has not been kind, Jean-Claude...
All right, I admit it. This is a pretty useless film as far as film buffs go. But place yourself back in grade 7 when we first saw this film and you'll realize exactly what we liked about it.It had to have been the well-choreographed (for a low-budget flick), well-glossed production of what's basically a b-level action film, but even then you couldn't deny Jean-Claude Van Damme had a certain charisma to him. And I couldn't tell you how many times we re-enacted the fights in our backyard.Obviously enough people agreed at the time, because it wasn't long before he started making bigger-budgeted movies like Hard Target and Timecop; but this is where he struck paydirt first. It has my favourite old school villain Yeung Tze (Bolo Yeung--underused in this film, with regard to technical ability), some unbelieveably bad acting all around, and a superb score by Mark DiSalle, who's early-techno beats really help make the fight scenes work.Years later, we all know this film has aged badly, even when you throw it to the designation of 'camp-classic.' But where Van Damme films are concerned (especially his later films), you could do much, much worse.