Customer Reviews

Bloodmatch [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

In some circles, "Bloodmatch" - Albert Pyun's second official martial arts flick following Cyborg - has become venerated as an unappreciated gem of the fight genre. While I appreciate the presence of some of the lesser-known performers featured in this movie, I have yet to realize how this film rises above being anything more than a dumb, sadistic kickboxing movie with sub-par action scenes filmed on a very limited scale. The many B-movie fans that haven't seen this movie will probably need to convince themselves of this by giving it a watch, but to anybody who's stumbled upon this review by accident, I implore you to leave this film on Amazon...unless you're a strong fan of Pyun's.

The story: seeking revenge for his murdered brother, Brick Bardo (Thom Matthews, The Return of the Living Dead) tracks down four of the world's greatest kickboxers whom he believes to be behind a conspiracy that saw his sibling assassinated. After kidnapping Brent Caldwell (Dale Jacoby, No Retreat, No Surrender), Billy Munoz (Benny Urquidez, Wheels on Meals), Mike Johnson (Thunderwolf, Shootfighter: Fight to the Death), and Connie Angel (Hope Marie Carlton, Slumber Party Massacre III), he has them transported to an empty fight arena and squares off against each in turn, looking to beat a confession out of whomever is the most guilty.

I'm aware that Thom Matthews' character is not meant to be the typical martial arts hero, but before you're halfway through the film, he's surpassed the role of anti-hero and become an outright villain, to the point that the only person you don't want to see kick his butt is Dale Jacoby's despicable world champ. Indeed, the `guilty four' seem less guilty of their supposed crimes than Brick is of insanity after much remorseless torture and killing and an eventual confusing twist that calls into question if he even knows who he is. In these aforementioned aspects, "Bloodmatch" tries to be as much of a psychological drama as a kickboxing flick, but before long, it's clear that the script lacks the weight and the actors lack the dramatic skill necessary to pull off such a hybrid effort.

The fighting is abundant but, I'm sorry to say, is nowhere near great. There are five fights throughout the movie (usually I'd consider this a meager amount, but since the film runs under 90 minutes, it's not bad), but in every single one of them, Pyun has chosen to utilize the dated and unnecessary technique of replaying almost every other punch or kick multiple times in succession - sometimes in excess of three times. And no, these are not money shots that deserve a second look; more often than not, we're talking about an ordinary heel kick or haymaker that would have actually looked better if it were not examined from every angle so viewers would know that yes, it's just a regular kick. Hector Pena (Death Match), Peter Cunningham (Above the Law), and Vincent Klyn (the bad guy of "Cyborg") get to mix it up with Thunderwolf in the first and best fight of the movie (not saying much), but having them around doesn't make much of a difference - the filming and editing of the brawls, regardless of their choreography, ought to scare away any self-respecting martial arts junkie.

It also doesn't help that the film feels way too short: it was admirable that about five minutes worth of thought could be stretched into an 86-minute movie, but it still felt like the film still had plenty of places to go and more aspects of the plot and characters to explore. Then again, at least we were spared more of those godawful fight scenes, so I ought to be thankful. It's hard to believe that Pyun would pull off the legitimately watchable Kickboxer 2 after this debacle, but if you've seen more than one of his films, you'll know that this director's mind works in mysterious ways. Throw this one on the rejection pile and keep looking for that perfect kickboxing gem...

One thing I like in this movie, It shows women stronger than men!!!