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Bloodsport

Play trailer Poster for Bloodsport R 1988 1h 32m Action Play Trailer Watchlist
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48% Tomatometer 29 Reviews 74% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
U.S. soldier Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has come to Hong Kong to be accepted into the Kumite, a highly secret and extremely violent martial-arts competition. While trying to gain access into the underground world of clandestine fighters, he also has to avoid military officers who consider him to be AWOL. After enduring a difficult training and beginning a romance with journalist Janice Kent (Leah Ayres), Frank is given the opportunity to fight. But can he survive?
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Bloodsport

Bloodsport

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Critics Consensus

This is where it all began for the Muscles from Brussels, but beyond Van Damme's athleticism, Bloodsport is a cliched, virtually plotless exercise in action movie recycling.

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Critics Reviews

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Dave Kehr Chicago Tribune The contest format is hopelessly repetitive and inert, the characters would seem underdeveloped in a comic book, and the restricted setting ensures that the action will never develop any real scale or velocity. Rated: 1/4 Dec 28, 2018 Full Review Leonard Klady Los Angeles Times Hacking through the jungle of cliche and reservoir of bad acting in Bloodsport are some pretty exciting matches. Dec 28, 2018 Full Review Simon Cunliffe Time Out A well-plucked turkey, humourless and plagued by a script full of stilted mumbo-jumbo. Feb 9, 2006 Full Review Don Shanahan Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast The best Mortal Kombat movie not named Mortal Kombat. Jun 29, 2024 Full Review Brandon Collins Medium Popcorn It's very entertaining despite making absolutely no sense. Terrible acting but it's so fun, almost like "Roadhouse". The 80's were wild. Rated: 3/5 Mar 4, 2022 Full Review Justin Brown Medium Popcorn This is extremely entertaining and I enjoyed the nuances of the different fighting styles. Also the fact that this story was completely fabricated makes it a hilarious con. Rated: 4/5 Mar 4, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Blu B Van Damme's finest hour. I honestly was not expecting much from this and the first 30 minutes or so fell right in line with what I thought this would be. A piece of gloriosu 80's campy pulp and it is to an extent. There is terrible acting at times, choppy messy character/plot setup, tons of slow motion, over the top moments, oozing dated 80's at the seams, and cliche characters and pointless moments as well like the sub plot of the two detectives trying to hunt down Van Damme. But something unique and beautiful happens. This film understands much more than I gave it credit for VISUAL STORYTELLING for the next hour or so. The tournament starts and hardly any words need to be said 90% of the time. The fights are pretty good actually and just gives it a lot of focus, momentum, and the physical acting is WAY better than the dramatic cheese. Gone is all the clunky dialouge and the over the top 80's soundtrack works well. It never stops with fight after fight and it never feels repetitive, moves the story/tournament forward, and you get invested way more because of it. The fights are just well done and very entertaining. It makes the editing/acting half decent honestly as a whole. Everything else thanks to the fights and next hour is just good and I had fun with it surprisingly. Granted they give downtime moments in between but you just want them to get through those and go back to the tournament which they do quickly thank god. If your a fan of Martial Arts flicks, the director (which isn't bad here), any actors in this, or 80's action flicks give this a watch. It surprised me and pulls a rabbit out of the hat being a good movie despite lots of flaws upfront. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/22/25 Full Review Romas M Greetings from Lithuania. When i was 6-8 years old, "Bloodsport" (1988) was one of my favorite movies around. It was so good martial arts movie (and in general i didn't liked martial arts movies), but it was also just a very decent film overall. The fighting action scenes were awesome, characters were simple yet sharply drawn - it was easy to identify who is good who is bad, who fights dirty and who is just fun to watch at. It is probably still my favorite movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme, and it even had Forest Whitaker! (didn't new him for sure at the time). The training scenes i still can remember after 20 years now (this is how much time have past since i saw this movie last time). Revisiting it lately in 2025 on 4K UHD disk was a great experience - this film looks incredible and Dolby Atmos enriches the experience. Overall, "Bloodsport" is not deep at ideas, but it was almost perfect for what it wanted to be - a Kick-Ass martial arts movie with characters we do care about. This is one of the very best (and probably my favorite one) of it's genre. And the last fight is simply unforgettable stuff. Music is a perfect 80's soundtrack. "Bloodsport" is awesome. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/17/25 Full Review A.S. Diego Andrés A My favorite movie ever when I was a child !!I guess I watch it more than 100 times, I even bought the VHS :D Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/04/25 Full Review Chief B We know it's all cliche but the fighting and the signature fighting style of van Damme is just super to watch. And of course Bolo Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/13/25 Full Review Harrison B Hard to rate this because, as a movie, it's awful and idiotic, but, as a showcase of a really amazing athlete it's top-notch. Nothing else good about it though. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 06/09/25 Full Review Michael D L Great action movie with a decent plot Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/07/25 Full Review Read all reviews
Bloodsport

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Bloodsport

Bloodsport: Official Clip - Training Bloodsport: Official Clip - Training 2:35 Bloodsport: Official Clip - A Quarter Trick Bloodsport: Official Clip - A Quarter Trick 1:46 Bloodsport: Official Clip - Young Frank Dux Bloodsport: Official Clip - Young Frank Dux 3:03 Bloodsport: Official Clip - Final Match Bloodsport: Official Clip - Final Match 4:00 Bloodsport: Official Clip - Teach Me Bloodsport: Official Clip - Teach Me 1:56 Bloodsport: Official Clip - The Touch of Death Bloodsport: Official Clip - The Touch of Death 2:19 Bloodsport: Official Clip - Matte! Victory! Bloodsport: Official Clip - Matte! Victory! 4:11 Bloodsport: Official Clip - Dux vs. Paco Bloodsport: Official Clip - Dux vs. Paco 2:20 Bloodsport: Official Clip - No Pain, No Gain Bloodsport: Official Clip - No Pain, No Gain 2:10 View more videos
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Movie Info

Synopsis U.S. soldier Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has come to Hong Kong to be accepted into the Kumite, a highly secret and extremely violent martial-arts competition. While trying to gain access into the underground world of clandestine fighters, he also has to avoid military officers who consider him to be AWOL. After enduring a difficult training and beginning a romance with journalist Janice Kent (Leah Ayres), Frank is given the opportunity to fight. But can he survive?
Director
Newt Arnold
Producer
Mark DiSalle, Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan
Screenwriter
Sheldon Lettich, Christopher Cosby, Mel Friedman
Production Co
Cannon International
Rating
R
Genre
Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$10.8M
Runtime
1h 32m
Sound Mix
Ultra-Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby Atmos
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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