Bloodsport 2: The Next Kumite





release year: 1996
genre: martial arts
viewing setting: home DVD, 7/18/21

synopsis: A thief gets sent to prison, where he gains some honor and some new fighting skills just in time to compete in a tournament.

impressions: Ah, where to begin? This movie, to its credit, doesn't just clone the first one, and someone involved in its making ensured that there were a great number of matches. 26, to be exact. Yeah, some of them are short, but none were a-few-second highlights like some fights in the original movie; every contest here has a defined beginning, middle, and end. So that 26 is a lot! Other things of note: a prison subplot, some interesting outfits, some fighters posing and strutting during their fights, a variety of fighting styles, an official who joins in the action at one point, a female fighter, a fake Dolph Lundgren, a pointless female non-love interest, lots of crunching sounds during the fights, and a weird soundtrack that often sounds like dance music.

number of Kumite matches in this movie: 26 complete fights...wow!

acting: This movie had a lot of notable actors. First, there's Daniel Bernhardt (who looks and poses like Van Damme) as the main guy Alex. Donald Gibb returns, now involved as some sort of facilitator for the tournament. We've got Pat Morita as a semi-crooked businessman, and James Hong (Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China) as Alex' ancient prison mentor. The main bad guy (and Chong Li wannabe) is Ong Soo Han, who is fairly menacing here and was part of the memorable ice factory fight in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. A number of minor roles were filled by real-life martial artists.

final word: Worthy sequel with strong quantity, quality, and variety of fights and fighting styles.

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