2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4 stars for the kumite, September 2, 2006
This review is from: Bloodsport 3 (DVD)
Following the previous 2 all-around excellent Bloodsports, part 3 is a sad disappointment in terms of any excitement until the last 30 minutes of the film, where it all makes up for it with some of the best fights ever.
Bloodsport 3 has a few returning characters from the 2nd film, including the main character, Alex Cardo (Daniel Bernhardt). The other 2 returns, Lueng (Pat Morita) and Master Sun (James Hong), have maybe 2 minutes of screen time combined. Bloodsport 3 does get a new charcater, Mr. Devalle played by John Rhys Davies - Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings movie, who has decent acting talent. Mr. Devalle is the center of the story, encouraging Alex to fight in his tournament so that Devalle can place a successful bet on him. Refusing to enter the kumite, Devalle murders Master Sun so that Alex will change his mind, but he still refuses. Devalle enters a new competitor, The Beast, in hopes that he will prevail. After extensive training, Alex surprsingly enters the kumite to avenge his master and defeat The Beast.
Unfortunately, the story is boring and been done a hundred times, but fortunately it doesn't matter once the kumite begins. The kumite literally lasts for the last 3o minutes of the movie straight, with fight after fight of beautiful choreography and great editing. The Beast is definetly a great villain in the kumite, but unlike Chong Li and The Demon in the previous Bloodsports, he only has 3 fights in the entire kumite. His 3rd fight is against Alex, which lasts a good 4-1/2 minutes and is the best fight in the movie. I actually liked it a lot more than Alex's fight against Demon in the previous Bloodsport.
Bloodsport 3's only bright spot is the fights, which are not disappointing at all. The first hour of this movie is all around bad, but buying this movie for the kumite alone is still well well worth it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
"Gonna jack you up, punk", March 8, 2011
This review is from: Bloodsport 3 (DVD)
Aging does wonders for wine and classical music, but the "Bloodsport" series simply got old and questionable as it progressed through the years. Its third installment pales in comparison to the series'
original karate opus and its
underrated gem of a first sequel in everything from fight content to utilization of its characters. It's not awful, but fans not wanting to see their favorite martial arts franchise beginning to lose steam should assume the adventure ended with "Bloodsport 2" and forget this one was ever made.
The story: when former Kumite champion Alex Cardo (Daniel Bernhardt) refuses to accept an invitation to another tournament from a wealthy crime lord (John Rhys-Davies), his teacher Sun (James Hong,
Big Trouble in Little China) is assassinated to goad him into entering. However, Alex has no hope of overcoming the tremendous physical and spiritual odds without the training of the wise returning Judge Macado (Hee Il Cho).
Killing off one of the most likable characters from the last movie (Sun) was this one's first mistake. Giving said character - along with a returning Pat Morita (
The Karate Kid series) - a total screentime of less than three minutes before doing so was its second and more damning one. Pre-
Lord of the Rings John Rhys-Davies is delightfully hammy as the obsessive villain and Hee Il Cho deserved at least one movie role like this as a wise old master, but neither really have the presence or character strength to make up for the loss of the other two (what's more, Cho's voice has been entirely dubbed). Daniel Bernhardt is, once again, Jean-Claude Van Damme minus fifteen pounds; take him or leave him, short of his karate kicks.
As with the past two movies, these questionable dramatic antics are covered by the abundant fight content, more or less. The impressive tally of twenty start-to-finish matches makes the movie one of the most generous martial arts pictures I've ever seen, but the quality of the individual fights fluctuates sometimes. The vast majority of them take place during the tournament, which doesn't come about until the last 35 minutes of the film, at which point they range between surprisingly good (e.g. Jahi "Ayidi" Zuri vs. Scott "Bruce Burly" McElroy) to incredibly disappointing (Bernhardt vs. J.J. Perry from
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation). Roughly a quarter of them last less than twenty seconds, but you can eventually overlook this for the quality of the better encounters. Alex's end opponent and replacement for Chong Li and Ong Soo "Demon" Han is the late Nicholas "Beast" Oleson, who had a small role in
American History X and isn't a martial artist but convinces you of his brute strength; the final between the two of them is a four-minute formulaic brawl which comes across pretty disappointing for its blandness.
On the bright side, the attractive Sri Lankan landscape surrounding the characters is pretty nice to look at and the training scenes between Alex and Macado are probably the crassest of the whole series: Macado makes Alex drink icky soup and plow the field, tries to pull his arms off by tying oxen to his limbs, shoots arrows at him ("Accept the arrow!"), and sics a cobra on him. More weirdness of the same variety could easily have earned the movie a higher rating, but as its stands, the fight scenes are the best part of the movie and these just aren't that wonderful on average. To be accurate, "Bloodsport III" hovers pretty solidly between two and three stars, but ends up with the former for the overall disappointment it afforded me.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
TO BE WORTHY OF THE KUMITE SWORD, YOU MUST DEFEND THE TRUTH, November 23, 1998
By A Customer
Bloodsport 3 picks up where #2 left us in the world of Alex Cardo (Bernhardt). When his mentor and "father" Sun (James Hong) is killed by the evil crime boss Duvalier (John Rhys-Davies), Alex proceeds on a quest to find the great Shaman, Makato to find guidance. Makato teaches him to fully channel the energy in his mind and body in order to defeat the most vicious warrior-Beast in the next Kumite sponsored by Duvalier.
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