Bloodsport: The Dark Kumite

One thing I can't understand about a number of low budget B movies made in the last 15 years or so is why their makers seem to think they can pass various locations in Bulgaria off as American locations. I can tell them right now that except maybe movies taking place in the wilderness, this deception DOES NOT WORK. Including this location - it's painfully clear that this American-set movie was shot in Bulgaria in every scene, with its eastern architecture and costumes. Still, I might have forgiven this movie for that if it delivered the goods, but it doesn't. The movie botches the scenes where you think there would be some good gratuitous nudity, and the fights (less fights than you'd think, by the way) aren't very exciting, running very short and not having very spectacular choreography. The movie also runs very slowly, with nothing but some extremely bad acting to amuse the audience along the way. The series came to an end at this point, not a moment too soon.

In that this sequel is easily the worst of the series but the silver lining being that it is the last one in this uninspired franchise. One may recall that the original starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as a major who flew to Hong Kong to compete in an outlawed tournament, this time the tournament angle is fairly undeveloped as the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie this most resembles is Death Warrant, except much, much worse. The production values of this Z-grade stinker is worse than you could imagine, for one there is absolutely no reason that a production should look this bad. The prison sequences look extremely cheap and it becomes quite obvious that this is being shot in some abandoned warehouse or storage area. Another aspect is that of the really bad fight sequences, these are so poorly staged and slow that one wonders if it even deserves to be compared to it's lame predecessor (# 3) let alone Bloodsport # 1 and # 2. Bloodsport IV is the worst of the series and without doubt due to it's sheer badness factor. Movies seriously don't get as poorly made or dull as this stinker. There is nothing at all to redeem anything to even earn a full star. This is the pits.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

Wow. How did this get made? What rich boy had enough of his own money to make a movie? I love the script and plot. Oh, dont forget the dry fight choro. This movie is made of 35mm stock and human feces. The strange part is, every time its on i have to watch it. Its kinda like a bad car accident; You dont want to look but you just have to keep peeking up. I like the recycled gun shoot out shots too. This is a great movie to get a bunch of friends to see with you, so you can just run it into the ground.

I have to be totally honest with you people about this one. This is a movie that everyone should avoid at all costs. It didn't seem possible that the Bloodsport-series could get as low as this, but it did. First of all: The acting has to be the worst I've ever seen. I can't believe that it's possible to act as bad as some of the people in this movie do. The two villain's are especially bad. The movie has a really dark feel to it, and I didn't like that at all. It's filmed in Bulgaria. I guess that was the only thing they could afford, but it looks really, really bad. Good fighting scenes sometimes save a really bad movie, but that doesn't happen here at all. The fighting scenes are in fact really bad, and they're a big waste of Bernhardt's great potential. Oh, did I forget to mention that the plot sucks big time? A VERY, VERY BAD movie indeed.

If the franchise is to survive than it is imperative that the producers stick to the original idea. #4 is not related to the prior entries other than the fact that this stars Daniel Bernhardt. In the two prior entries, Bernhardt played Alex Cardo, an art dealer who learns the way of the Kumite to better himself. #4 finds him playing a new character, John Keller, a cop who participates in illegal street fights. When inmates start turning up missing at a local prison, Keller is asked to cover undercover to find out what is going on. Once in, he finds out that he has been targeted by the crazed Caesar to participate in a mysterious Kumite event. This film draws parallels to JCVD "Death Warrant" but the script and direction need work. Bloodsport 4 is watchable, thanks mainly to Bernhardt's screen presence.