"BLOODMATCH"

One of my favorite time killers is going to a local used video store and scavenging through the cheap VHS section, looking for out of print and obscure action movies. Awhile back, I came upon "Bloodmatch" and I realized quickly just from the box it met all the criteria I usually look for. Some awesome B-movie actors? Check. Director known to the genre? Check. Cool action/martial arts/violence? Check plus! As soon as I spent my hard earned 50 cents, I wanted to go home and watch this hidden treasure. Once it started playing in my battle tested VCR, my excitement quickly started to dwindle.

"Bloodmatch" is another revenge flick, where a man brings together a bunch of fighters and tries to kill the man or in this case kickboxer, who has killed his brother. I'm really not leaving anything out, because once this group is assembled in an abandoned arena, the last 50 minutes of this film is pretty much an extended fight scene. "Bloodmatch" does not bother cutting down the fight scene time limits, and usually I would be all for this, but here the fight moments are painfully long and awkward. "They Live" is praised for having the longest most ridiculous fight scene, but I'd beg to differ that multiple scenes in "Bloodmatch" exceed that movie's fight scene time limit. And for sure exceed the ridiculousness of that brawl. Also this film suffers from not having any sort of true protagonist, or antagonist for that matter. The main character is never really established till halfway through the film, and you just have a bunch of fighters running around at different times and places. Once you realize who the lead is, you don't know if he's the good guy or bad guy. And believe me, this film is not taking artistic strides and breaking boundaries, it is not a mystery what is going on here.

It's a shame this was such an awful movie. The director Albert Pyun has actually made some tolerable movies in the genre. "Cyborg" is one of my favorite Van Damme movies, and "Kickboxer 2" is one of the better martial arts sequels. The lead Thom Matthews may even be recognizable to you horror movie nerds for his starring role as Tommy Jarvis in "Friday the 13th: Part VI" as well as a leading role in "Return of the Living Dead". You will also recognize some of your basic martial arts extras that made their way into other movies, but alas they do not save the film. In the end, I won't be getting rid of this from my collection. It is extremely hard to find. Also, it looks nice next to all the other bad martial arts C movies of the 80's and early 90s on my shelf.

*1/2 Lance Approval*

Lance respects fellow B movie action actor Thunder Wolf, but thats about it.