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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Kick A$$ Blonde, January 5, 2010
This review is from: Bloodmatch [VHS] (VHS Tape)
BLOODMATCH is a low-budget martial arts film with even lower budget production values. Most of this film takes place in a boxing ring, a contrivance that no doubt saved the producers significant amounts of money. The raison d'etre of this film is kickboxing. Given the skimpiness of the storyline, sets, script, e-t-c, I would have hoped that the film would have highlighted some really well choreographed, memorable fight scenes. But it doesn't. It's rather bland fare for this genre.
In what there is of a story, a champion kickboxer named Brick is searching for his brother's killers. He's convinced himself that the four people he takes prisoner (all rival kickboxers) are responsible for ending his brother's life. In revenge, he beats them to death one at a time in front of the others.
The fight sequences are fairly mediocre and use multiple identical cuts to prolong the fighting. As far as Brick goes, he ultimately becomes less of an avenger than an obsessed killer.
This film earns an extra star because of Hope Marie Carlton who is the only actor onscreen with a resume. That, and she's cute and tough and sexy doing chin high kicks in a little black dress. And ultimately she wins. (This is predictable, so no, I haven't given anything away by telling you.) Hope Marie Carlton is my favorite Playmate (July 1985), so I watch anything she appears in. She's usually the best reason to watch, and that's never more so the case than in BLOODMATCH. As a matter of fact, let's give her TWO stars out of the three I awarded this picture.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
It's a poor mans Bloodsport, February 22, 2010
This review is from: Bloodmatch [VHS] (VHS Tape)
While enjoying a great run of hilarious action B thanks to late night cable and on-demand goodness it was only a matter of time before a dud made an appearance. With a title like Bloodmatch and a premise that sounded so promising it was really quite the let down in the low budget circuit. However in the films defense it doesn't help that we just came off of fresh viewings with Gary Busey's Eye of the Tiger and David Bradley's Cyborg Cop that set the bar of expectations to new levels. Of course as you may know the early 90's was a great time for hilarious action which we tend to take great pride in making us a bit more critical on films from the time. Especially when we're comparing most to how they measures up to the iconic Death Ring.
In the lackluster film Bloodmatch we have a story of revenge courtesy of a man named Brick Bardo. With a name like that you've just earned yourself a star off the bat. See Brick's brother was taken out by one of the world's top kickboxers which has sent him on a specific mission to kill anyone involved. With the help of some harda** blond chick Brick rounds up four fighters he suspects guilty and kicks the snot out of them one by one in a dimly lit boxing ring. In fact he ties them all up and keeps the light shinning on their face while interrogating, very similar to Mcqueen in Jesups garage. As he beats each one to death with shots not even coming close to contact you will find yourself barely staying awake. We really wanted to like it but just couldn't. It had the right B premise, came from our favorite decade, but just failed in almost every aspect.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
dark, harsh and violent...all in the name of love and honor, August 19, 2006
This review is from: Bloodmatch [VHS] (VHS Tape)
It might be cheesy to a certain extent, but for these type of movies, Bloodmatch is powerful in its own way. Thom Mathews does a great job with his character, Brick Bardo, who is on a mission of revenge to discover who killed his brother. Although he plays dirty, its obvious that Brick is not really a bad guy, but goes to great lengths to honor his dead brother. He captures 4 suspects, 3 men and one woman, who are all well skilled in martial arts. These characters are what make the other half of the movie so good, Thunderwolf (also in Shootfighter), Dale Jacoby (No Retreat No Surrender, Ring of Fire), Benny "The Jet" Urquidez (Wheels on Meals, Dragons Forever) and Hope Marie Carlton. Brick Bardo fights off each one of them in the ring, in an arena where it is just the 4 suspects, Brick and his wife, Max. The fights are very good I have to admit, thanks to choreogrpahy by Benny. Each fight is lenghty and real, with the fighters and Brick evenly matched in skills. Benny Urquidez's fight is a real treat of choreography to watch. The story has a great ending that you probably wouldn't see coming at all.
Beware...Bloodmatch seems very dark and violent, with plenty of harsh language galore. In a wierd way, there is heart to this movie behind it all. Bloodmatch has wonderful fights, but thankfully a story and plot that is a notch above the rest in the B-movie category.
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