Bloodsport II (1996)
After thief Alex Cardo gets caught while stealing an ancient katana in East Asia, he soon finds himself imprisoned and beaten up by the crowd there. One of the guards, Demon, feels upset by Alex appearance and tortures him as often as he gets the opportunity. Alex finds a friend and mentor in the jailhouse, Master Sun, who teaches him a superior fighting style called Iron Hand. When a 'best of the best kumite' is to take place, Demon gets an invitation. Now Master Sun and Alex need to find a way to let Alex take part in the kumite too.
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Absolutely the worst movie.
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Obviously, you will not like this movie if you did not like 1988's Bloodsport (though there ARE some cases where the sequel is better than the original). This review is thus addressed to those who liked Bloodsport and are wondering whether they should bother to watch Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite. My answer would be yes.Sure, Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't here (Donald Gibb serves as the link between the two movies), but Daniel Bernhardt, as petty thief Alex Cardo who discovers the meaning of honor, makes for a likable, charismatic lead, who also bears somewhat of a resemblance with Jean-Claude.Also interesting is the narration, told in flash-back by Alex Cardo's trainer, Master Sun (played by James Hong) to a throng of young disciples. In these moments in particular, Bloodsport II shows that it is completely aware of what kind of movie it is, that it does not aspire to be anything more, and even pokes fun at itself (see the excellent ending, for example).In short, Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite is not as awesome as it's predecessor, but it does what it aspires to do: it gets the job done. The cinematography isn't as good here as the first time, making the fights less impressive, but they're good enough. The story and the fact that the movie changes location (from Hong Kong to Thailand), contribute to not make it a rehash of the original. The actors, from Daniel Bernhardt to Donald Gibb, passing by James Hong and Pat Morita, are just right. And just like in the first one, you may know exactly how it's going to end, but it's still a joy to watch.
After watching "Bloodsport" and enjoying that movie to the fullest, I just had to watch the sequels too even though van Damme has nothing to do with them. Instead, Swiss Daniel Bernhardt takes the role of our fighting hero. In my opinion, he makes a really good replacement for van Damme. The fight scenes are really great in this movie too, and there are lots of it to make every martial arts fan out there satisfied. The villain in this movie, 'Demon', is unfortunately not nearly as interesting as Bolo Yeung's 'Chong-Li' was in the first. But that's a minor detail. But seriously, this "Iron-hand"-stuff should have been removed from the script. It was just too ridiculous in a movie that tries to be a bit realistic. On the upside: It was really cool to see that Donald Gibb returned as 'Jackson'.
I just finished watching this movie right now, I've seen it a flew times now, and I like it, its a good martial arts movie, al thogh...it still dosnt come close to the first Bloodsport, which is one of my favorite films of all time. its a classic.....you should see this movie if you like movies like this......but, I gotta say, the guy who plays Alex is the best Van damme rip off I have ever seen!....I think they should make a new bloodsport , and call it, Bloodsport 5: the return of Frank Dux! lol, and have Van Damme fight this guy that trys to imitate him in these movies! That would be funny!
I have now seen the 4 bloodsport films and this is the best followed by the first then the third and finally the fourth. This has a reasonably decent story and the martial arts scenes are some of the best around. For the record Bloodsport 4: The Final Chapter is quite bad. The fight scenes and story are ridiculous, but Bloodsport 2 has to be recommended to any action movies fan.