Máximo Combate

This is basically a realistic documentary on the totally real Kumite that totally happened in real life! wow! basically its like Mortal Kombat but without the costumes...

Actors: Although it doesn't have the classic fued between Van Damn and Bolo Yeung, it does have Donald Gibb. The new guy Daniel Bernhardt does a good job.

Fight Scenes: The fights are well done and the actors are athletic.

Music: Sounds somewhere in between Mortal Kombat and salsa dancing music.

Philosophy: To own something one must earn it, not steal it...or maybe both?

Conclusive Thoughts: The characters are not as interesting, one guy had clown style makeup on while fighting the first female warrior allowed in the tournament. The fight scenes with the generic fighters combined with the Mortal Kombat Salsa music worked well together. A backstory for some of the tournament fighters would make it more interesting and would add some plot depth.

There are some movies that you actually are supposed to hate. Kind of like a dish that isn't good for you or doing a small bit of gambling, you know you aren't supposed to enjoy it because it's wrong. But hey, we all have vices, right? Bloodsport 2 is one of those movies for me.

The premise of the movie is pretty simple. An arrogant thief named Alex Cardo, played by Daniel Bernhardt, gets caught by the police after being setup by his partner. It turns out that Cardo is already a good martial artist, but when he goes to jail, he meets a person with even "stronger kung fu", named Sun (James Hong). The rest is pretty straight forward from there. A reformed criminal seeks redemption, a student learns the Ultimate Technique from his master. Said reformed jailbird/student enters to the Ultimate Death Match tournament to honor his master and gain back his honor. Along the way, we get a lot of new faces (and some old ones as well if you've seen the first movie), a ton of fights, some big bad evil former student, and some pathetic facsimile of a romance happen.

Probably the strongest point of this film is the fight choreography and action sequences. I actually believe that when they were brainstorming this film, they decided to make a tournament fighter featuring different styles of martial arts. But they needed something to try and ensure some modicum of notoriety, so they tied it into the languishing franchise of "Bloodsport" (thanks for Dux getting tacitly outed as a fraud), picked up the services of Pat Murita, and called it good.

But back to the point, you see a ton of different styles in this film and nearly all the fights are very well done. Bernhardt does a reasonable job as a Van Damme-clone (despite being his first film) and special mention go to Ron Hall and Ong Soo Han for their roles in this film as well. Gibb reprises his role as Ray Jackson as well, but it's more for comedic effect. That said, he does a fine job hamming it up.

Otherwise, there isn't anything wrong with the technical aspects of production. The story has a ton of clichés, some of the dialogue is downright awful ("You are a true warrior, Alex" is one of the single most out of place lines of all time. It's the Bloodrayne sex scene of dialogue, but without Loken's umm... assets). The romance sub-plot is outright horrible and seemed like it was forced in as an afterthought for the purposes of trying to mirror the success of the original film as much as possible. The musical score isn't anything fantastic, but they at least made the pieces "fit" as best as possible and a few of the tunes are catchy. Some of the segments of the film are legitimately funny (as intended) and provide a welcome relief from the boring secondary plot elements.

On the whole, there isn't much to the film other than the fight sequences. It does take some time to get to what we all want to see. It's worth the wait (or just the use of the fast forward feature on your DVD or other methods of delivery). If you enjoyed the first film, are a fan of tournament fighting movies, or are a fan of Bernhardt or Donald Gibb, you'll enjoy it. Otherwise, you might be best passing on this.

No pun intended - I don't know if the honor code and the fighting code even matters to you. It was quite the paper thin string that held the first movie together. Now I can't really say if this is supposed to play in the same universe as the first one. But you do get Jackson back (D. Glib) ... which I guess is a nice touch.

What I do agree with others: the fight scenes are at least as good as the first one. Sometimes probably even better. The main actor (from Swiss) is really good - he is a stunt coordinator or became one if I got it right. So he knows his stuff. And you also get two other greats in this: Pat Morata (Karate Kid/Miyagi) and James Wong - nice touch to say the least.

The story is paper thin - it even copies certain beats (like the last opponent of our main bad guy before he takes on our hero ... and the reaction to it. But even in that moment you can tell what the biggest flaw of the movie is: it does not have a good enough villain ... and by good enough I mean bad enough of course (yes my puns, you know you love them).

And all told like a fairy tale of sorts ... why not? Maybe a cautionary tale even? Who knows ... who cares?

Obviously, you will not like this movie if you did not like 1988's Bloodsport (though there ARE some cases where the sequel is better than the original). This review is thus addressed to those who liked Bloodsport and are wondering whether they should bother to watch Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite. My answer would be yes.

Sure, Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't here (Donald Gibb serves as the link between the two movies), but Daniel Bernhardt, as petty thief Alex Cardo who discovers the meaning of honor, makes for a likable, charismatic lead, who also bears somewhat of a resemblance with Jean-Claude.

Also interesting is the narration, told in flash-back by Alex Cardo's trainer, Master Sun (played by James Hong) to a throng of young disciples. In these moments in particular, Bloodsport II shows that it is completely aware of what kind of movie it is, that it does not aspire to be anything more, and even pokes fun at itself (see the excellent ending, for example).

In short, Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite is not as awesome as it's predecessor, but it does what it aspires to do: it gets the job done. The cinematography isn't as good here as the first time, making the fights less impressive, but they're good enough. The story and the fact that the movie changes location (from Hong Kong to Thailand), contribute to not make it a rehash of the original. The actors, from Daniel Bernhardt to Donald Gibb, passing by James Hong and Pat Morita, are just right. And just like in the first one, you may know exactly how it's going to end, but it's still a joy to watch.

There were only a few issues that kept this from being a better film. We don't care about the hero. There's no exposition (not including the old man telling the story to the kids). And there's no reason why we should like him. 5 minutes of background on his character and some events that make us cheer for him would be helpful. Pat Morita and Donald Gibb in very minor throw away roles that just tries to give the film some kind of pedigree. The acting was atrocious. The music if there was any was forgettable. The love scene didn't work. The villain was not as developed as he should have been. It's OK to have a woman in the kumite, but she would have to be the greatest technical fighter in the world to compensate for the huge disadvantage of the overpowering strength of the men. And she wasn't that skilled. Still an enjoyable film for Bloodsport fans. But it could have been better.