Bloodsport 4

release year: 1999
genre: martial arts
viewing setting: home DVD, 7/23/21

synopsis: A tough cop goes undercover in a jail and ends up being forced to fight.

impressions: I just don't know about this. Where to begin? The music-video-like direction? The abundance of non-fighting-match police drama plot? The pointless bathing scene? The fact that this is supposed to be taking place in the U.S. despite the architecture clearly being European? The overacting? The idea that anonymous rich people will gather to watch fights to the death? The really odd circus-type pre-tournament dancing? The goofy faces and shouts made by the spectators at random times? The shifting of the surroundings from desert to snowy firest to city? A bad guy named Shrek? Don't get me wrong, there were moments, like when someone got stabbed in the neck with a pen and blood squirted out through the pen. Or the random appearance of henchpeople dressed up like mobsters from the 1920s. I thought it likely that someone else wrote this movie up much better than I could have, and I was right.

number of Kumite matches in this movie: 5.5 (one ended with a gunshot)

acting: Daniel Bernhardt returns, but playing a completely different character who doesn't look like Van Damme. Ivan Ivanov is the weird main bad guy, who has a palace filled with women who line his staircases and hand him the phone. Lisa Stothard is the police partner and is at least comeptent. Stefanos Miltsakakis is the hulking evil fighter.

final word: This wasn't a sequel, just a strange and sometimes weirdly entertaining mess starring the guy from the last two.

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