Bloodsport: The Dark Kumite (1999)

While watching Bloodsport 4, I ended up asking myself multiple times, "Why was this film made?" To this day, I am not sure why. But if I had to guess how Bloodsport 4 got into production, my theory would be that the screenplay writer, suffering from innovation fatigue, stole the script from a third grade student who, in turn, ripped off the formula from the movie "Death Warrant" with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Then the producers, forgetting that the martial arts genre was no longer popular, wrote a cheque worth millions of dollars after three seconds of considered thought. The next step was to hire some really bad actors (either that or they were so embarrassed reading the lines that they ended up sounding like seven year olds pretending to be very serious) and then conceal this fact by tacking on the normally charismatic Daniel Bernhardt as the protagonist Keller. The only problem is that Bernhardt looks as lost in this movie as all of the other actors. Plus the action sequences are that special either. It takes the suspense out of a movie when the bad guy touches Keller's shoulder to indicate to him that now is the time to try out some of those martial arts moves. Then as the movie started entering into its second leg, a strange thing happened: I actually started to miss the sound of Jean-Claude Van Damme's tough guy accent from Death Warrant, which was easily more entertaining than anything in this picture.

I was surprised to realize i didn't made a review for this movie yet. I saw it a couple years ago, when i was in the pinnacle of my martial art movies buzz, and i remember even back then i was disappointed by it compared to the 3 other Bloodsports.First of all, i love both the first and second one equally, despite the second one not having Van Damme, i think Daniel is just as good if not better when it comes to fighting scenes. Third one was a little step down but i liked it a lot too.With this forth one, i don't know what they where trying to do really. I know some franchise use the same actor in different sequels with different characters, like Don Wilson's Bloodfist, but in this movie something really felt off about it. I really like Alex Cardo as a character but it was obvious his story was done, but they wanted Daniel for another movie, the problem is, they should had called it something else. Probably to make money because of the bloodsport name, they decided to call it "Bloodsport The Dark Kumite". Honestly the main character is far less interesting than Alex Cardo, the set-up although already done previously is not that bad, but its just something feel off about the whole thing.Fight scenes are OK, but way under the ones in the previous movies, and the budget look very small, the acting is not convincing. Well what can i say, its really not as fun as the previous Bloodsports despise not being a total turd as some people call it.I think it would had work a bit better with another title but oh well...

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.

When I saw bloodsport I liked it very much, when I saw Bloodsport 2 I didn't like it much, when I saw bloodsport 3 I was depressed. I hoped there wasn't be a bloodsport 4 because it would be worser than 3. But I was wrong. This movie is the best movie of Daniel Berhardt. The fights were great, the story was ok, the acting was good enough. There were a few things bad in this movie:The Kumite wasn't a Japanese fighting tournament - The kumite was too short - The music wasn't greatBloodsport is still the best but if you want to see another great martial arts movie I recommend this movie. Rating 7.5/10