Bloodmatch

Brick Bardo is on a revenge mission to take out the four fighters who set up his brother. The lead has no charisma or maybe he's not really the lead. The overall acting skill level is bad. There are plenty of fights but I couldn't tell you who's who. All I know is four forgettable names in the kill list. Everything else is a confused blur. This is a bad B-movie. It runs out of steam by the thirty minutes mark if not sooner. The movie should start with getting the four kidnapped and then Brick can give his exposition. The acting remains bad but the story gets a bit clearer if not more reasonable.

With Benny "The Jet" Urquidez filming the fight scenes and playing a part in the movie, I expected more. I've seen him do some great things in other films, but this one left me wondering. It's a revenge film filled with great martial artists, but it sure didn't turn out to be a great film. Very few of the actors/actresses could actually act and the fighting left a lot to be desired. There were a few good fight scenes, but overall this strange, low-budget effort fell short. See it only if you can't sleep. Rating 5/10

Thom Mathews stars as Brick Bardo, a PO'd kickboxer looking to avenge the murder of his brother and deal out vengeance to the four fighters responsible, however he doesn't know who is the one at fault so he decides to kill them all anyway. Of course along the way lots of martial arts action ensues. Bloodmatch if anything else ranks as one of the cheapest movies made in the 1990's. Bloodmatch has four instances where it takes place outside of the fight arena. (Which itself looks as if it was slapped together one night, when Pyun realized he had an extra week to use the arena from Kickboxer 2, which it resembles) There is some good fight sequences but generally there is no interest in the characters and the acting is pretty bad. Thom Mathews gives an outrageously terrible performance but still acts circles around what has to be the worst actors i've seen since high school. Also the movie peaks early with a cool chase and torture sequence which is cool but then fades into the clichéd plot involving his brother. Also of note is that our hero kickboxer kidnaps little kids in order to force their parent to fight. That is a novelty. Also there is a twist ending which makes no sense what so ever and forced me to subtract a point from it's rating out of 10.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

Five years ago, one of the world's greatest kickboxers killed Thom Mathews' brother. Someone had been fixing matches and he had to die to cover up the secret. Now Mathews is tacking them down and beating them to death to figure it out, as one does.

All right, it's a dumb plot, and the lines are dumb. People who go to see this sort of movie don't go for the Shakespearean tragedies and wild language, any more than I look at Fred Astaire movies for the Edward Everett Horton soliloquies. So how's the fight choreography? Lousy: chopped up, moving camera, every kick is cut ..... and not while moving, but between, screaming that this is a patched-together cut. True, ex-Playboy Playmate Hope Marie Carlton is present. It's the only movie I've seen with her in which she does not take off her clothes. I guess at 24, she was showing her age.

What's to say except it's garbage. The sound effects on the kicks and punches was generic and off. The plot is ridiculous and overused. There is nothing new or impressive out this movie. I love Mathews in Friday the 13th Jason lives but the dialogue was atrocious. Skip it.