Shootfighter - Scontro mortale

This is one of those movies which is for karate, tae kwon do, kung fu and kick boxing fans, and of course, practitioners. This low budget martial arts movie, which is, as most of them very simple when it comes to the story, characters, directing and other stuff. There is simply no real complex stuff, no real dilemma between characters and no development. It's a typical good VS evil story with the haunting past element. A fighter Nick (Michael Bernardo) returns to his good friend Ruben (William Zabka), and upon their reunion they decide to sign in on the underground fighting tournament, held by Mr. Lee (Martin Kove). Nick founds out that the fights are brutal and sometimes to the death. But, Ruben is persistent and wants to fight. So, Nick asks for help from Ruben's teacher Shingo (Bolo Yeung), to save Ruben's life.

So, the movie is actually nothing special. Pretty bad when it comes to some stuff… For example, actors can't act. Well, most of them are martial artists. The real actors are maybe Edward Albert, Richard Eden and Maryam D'Abo (and I still don't understand how did she get here?). Edward Albert and Richard Eden are not bad actors, but they really appeared in much of the low budget films. Martin Kove is also not a bad actor, but his villain Mr. Lee is just evil and that's it. He is evil and he looks kind of deadly. Nothing more. Though Kove posses some kind of charisma. Michael Bernardo didn't do much with his character, he just under played it. William Zabka was not that bad, I think he was decent. Though his character is somewhat irritating. Just wouldn't listen and he is too prideful. And not in an interesting, complex way… he is just a jerk. Zabka did not move from these kind of films, he remained well known for being martial artist on the film, or rather a bully, just like in "Karate Kid". And for the last… I saved Bolo Yeung. What can I say? This man cannot act… and… he doesn't have to. This man has such a powerful appearance on the film, such a powerful charisma and character that he simply doesn't need to act. He played himself basically, but this time… he was the good guy. Go, Bolo, go! He is the main man.

The other things in the movie are nothing special, OK, the most important – fighting scenes. They were good, plausible. Well done filmed. Though, there are some that were ridiculous. And I think that music score is pretty interesting, especially in training montage. I recommend this film to all martial arts movie fans.

Oh, those good old days of the VHS, when movies, no matter their low-budget, had meaning. Back in the 80s martial arts films were so popular that any backdoor-garage-studio could produce a low budget film and make tons of money. After JCVM paved the way for tournament fighting style movies with his successful film, "Blood Sport," it was sure that many others clones would follow. Shootfighter followed on the same path but with a lower budget and less flare.

Shootfighter tells the story of two friends, Ruben (William Zabka) and Nick (Michael Bernardo), who are tricked to fight in a no-holds-barred tournament to the death by a blood hungry shootfighter named Mr. Lee (Martin Kove). Their master, Shingo (Bolo Yeung), has to save them from Lee and his cronies.

This movie was memorable because it had Zabka and Kove, both antagonists on Karate Kid (1984) and Yeung the main antagonist in Blood Sport. Now, the acting was average, photography was average, the plot was average, but the martial art choreography was top notch. That's one thing, no matter how cheap movies were back in the 80s and 90s they had some awesome fighting.

If you love old martial arts films, get a pizza, a case of beer, and watch this retro junk on a late Saturday night. You won't regret it.

Shootfighter: Fight to the Death is a marital arts film at it's low budget best. But surpisingly the film does have some decent fight scenes. It was good to see William Zabka in another martial arts role and the always good Bolo Yeung. He final fight scene with Martin Kove is one of the best for both actors. If you get a chance check this one out cuz it's not half bad.

I watched this for the first time a few years ago to declare my fan-lust for Michael Bernardo, back then anything that came out his mouth sounded good. But I saw it again today and on closer inspection, this movie has some of the worst dialog ever. When viewed with the sound off the actors do a generally good job of presenting their feelings, so they cannot be blamed for the corniness of the final product.

As such the deepest soul searching moments are the ones that are presented through what some may call typical a training montage, and of course the tournament fights with a wide variety of styles and weapons.

"You-disgraced-the-art-of-shoot-fighting" This opening quote sets the tone for this lively beat-em-up starring the ever-lovable Bolo Yeung as Shingo.

The plot revolves around two buddies named Ruben and Nick played by Zabka and Michael Bernardo respectively. Yeung plays their mentor. There is the prerequisite montage where he teaches them to "shootfight" and also they play basketball with young black children and Shingo smiles in an oddly fatherly way. Before the shootfighting tournament, there is a fight in a grocery store a la "Cobra" (1986) where Bolo shows off both his fighting and his broken English skills.

You may remember Zabka as Johnny from "The Karate Kid" where he infamously swept his leg at Macchio. Apparently he couldn't get enough karate-chopping action, so he hooked up with director Patrick Allen to give birth to Allen's one and only cinematic baby.

Ruben and Nick get embroiled in an underground "Shootfighting" ring. They eventually have to shootfight each other...to the death, but not before battling an array of wacky baddies in the ring, such as "Boa", who acts like a snake (including the hisses) and Mongoose, who adopts a mongoose fighting style, whatever that means. Some fights have a surprising amount of gore (i.e. limbs and fingers being broken off in a bloody mess), and this provides unintentional laughter and it sustains the viewer's interest until the end.

Martin Kove plays the evil mastermind, inexplicably named "Mr. Lee", who is behind all the shootfighting, and in his villainous rage, slices a pineapple with a samurai sword.

What is "Shootfighting" you ask? Well, that question is never quite answered satisfactorily, but after doing some research we were able to determine (by reading the back of the VHS box) that it is a "forbidden sport so brutal it's banned from the civilized world".

Prepare to get uncivilized with this classic.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty & Brett

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