"Bloodsport" is where it all began for Jean-Claude Van Damme's movie career. There are several styles of martial arts on display during the course of the film. The person who JCVD is playing - Frank Dux - is allegedly a fraud. He can't prove that he set all of those records during his so called distinctive career advice a martial artist. It's great to see Bolo Yeung in action again and playing a ruthless competitor during the martial arts tournament.

I saw this movie first in 2001 December. On HBO, During those days this movie was HBO's Favorite movie. This movies offers u lots of good things like student teacher relationship, Friendship, Love, dedication to achieve goal and lots of other good things. And bonus point its star cast was also perfect fit. Every star did a good job. If u want a 80's action flick for a Sunday evening movie this one would b a great choice. The fighters shown in the movie also did a great job. And its antagonist is also a tough to defeat for our hero to achieve his goal. I guarantee u will not lose u r 1hr 30min behind this movie. It is a worth watching movie.

Fighters from around the world are gathering in Hong Kong to compete in the full contact Kumite tournament. U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is going. After Senzo Tanaka's son Shingo's death, Frank was trained to take over the Tanaka legacy. He goes AWOL and the Army sends officers Helmer and Rawlins (Forest Whitaker) to retrieve him. Looming over everyone is the brutal Kumite champion Chong Li.The setup is banal. The acting is mostly poor to utterly embarrassing. None of that matters because the matches are so fun. The UFC would arrive years later. Van Damme's acting is horrible but his kicks are things of beauty. It's my first introduction to his splits and I was amazed. It's a simple movie with simple pleasures for the simple parts of my brain.

This title holds the dubious distinction of being the first film that really showcased Jean Claude Van Damme's martial arts. Throughout the film, we are constantly invited to watch Van Damme kick people in the face, spin around and generally do other athletic things, so this can be considered as the first film that broke him into Hollywood. As a film itself, the premise is rather basic and descends into a series of staged fight scenes…the familiarity of the situation comes from the many other films that Van Damme made which were basically just remakes of this one (I'm talking stuff like A.W.O.L., THE QUEST, KICKBOXER, etc.). The low budget is apparent, in that we don't get much in the way of special effects, but the fight scenes are all pretty good. All of these fights looked authentic (apart from the first, I think, where the thrown punches and kicks were too obvious) and kept the attention.The acting isn't really important in a film like this, but still…the female lead is, as to be expected, an airhead, adding nothing to the film whatsoever. Van Damme was still struggling with his accent at this point in time and he lacks some of the natural charisma which he later conveyed. Yes, his acting wasn't as good here, but he makes an adequate leading man and he's never been in better physical shape. Bolo Yeung thoroughly enjoys himself in the sneering role of the lead villain, and he obviously enjoyed working with Van Damme as he later turned up in 1991's DOUBLE IMPACT, playing yet another villain. It's surprising to see a young Forest Whitaker in the cast (this was obviously before he went "legit"), in the pointless role of a government agent whose job is to get Van Damme back to America. These scenes are added in as mere padding, to add something to the film other than the fight sequences, and consequently fall flat.The violence level is high, with lots of kicking and punching. We get some broken arms and legs, and plenty of nosebleeds, but I was surprised that the film didn't add more in the way of gratuitous violence…the only actual violence which hit home were the bits involving Yeung. On an simple level, this film is enjoyable, but it lacks the polished veneer and style of Van Damme's later offerings and therefore can't be considered one of his best.