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Cast:
Daniel
Bernhardt
James
Hong
Pat
Morita
Donald
Gibb
Ron
Hall
Ong
Soo Han
Lisa
McCullough
Lori
Lynne Dickerson
Philip
Tan
Action:
Philip
Tan
Producer:
Alan
Mehrez
Director:
Alan
Mehrez
Score:
  
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BLOODSPORT
2: THE NEXT KUMITE
AKA:
Blood Sport II
Year:
1996 Reviewer: Tony
Ryan
After
the success of the original 'Bloodsport',
Jean Claude Van Damme went onto become a pretty big star
worldwide and appeared in increasingly bigger budget films. As
a result, I assume he declined the invitation to appear in
this lo-cash sequel. Replacing JCVD in the lead role, and
making his movie debut, is ex-model Daniel Bernhardt who does
surprisingly well considering he was chosen for his physical
similarity to JCVD, and that the movie was just a blatant
cash-in.
As
Van Damme did not return, the character of (the real life)
Frank Dux was replaced, and Bernhardt plays the role of petty
thief Alex Cardo. I found this an odd decision considering
that Bernhardt looks so similar to JCVD and was apparently
chosen for this reason.
Alex
winds up being incarcerated in a Thai jail after being set up
trying to steal an ancient sword. In prison, he meets a wise
old man "Sun" (James Hong) who persuades Alex to
change his life and learn to be honest, patient and
honourable. As well as this noble attitude, Sun also teaches
Alex the 'Iron Fist' fighting technique (spot the irony)
through a series of training methods lifted straight from
films like 'Kickboxer'. Ultimately, Alex is released from
prison thanks to a rich business tycoon (Pat Morita) in return
for fighting in the Kumite to return the, still missing,
precious sword. Brilliant! Another original plot upon to which
to place a sequence of gratuitous fight sequences!
Casting
the atrocious plot to one side, this film is actually a notch
above the original in terms of action. In fact, half the
film's running time is probably spent in the kumite itself.
Almost every martial art possible is represented, and most of
the performers do a very good job. One in particular, Ron
Hall, displays some impressive speed and kicking techniques
and I'm surprised he hasn't been used more often in martial
arts movies. As with the original 'Bloodsport', the fights are
all one-on-one, and relatively short but are some of the
better examples of "American style" fight
choreography.
In
conclusion, 'Bloodsport 2' is an improvement over its
predecessor due to the greater quantity (and quality) of the
action. However, the original is still considered a classic
due to the 80's campness and people's rose-tinted memories,
making this sequel slightly redundant. Bernhardt is fairly
impressive, and almost the spitting image of JCVD at times. He
went on to make 2 further sequels in this franchise, and can
be seen more recently as Agent Johnson in 'The Matrix
Reloaded'.
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