Given that Hot Tub Time Machine and Beerfest have been two of the most popular blog entries in the last couple of months I think it’s safe to say that the PINNLAND EMPIRE readers aren’t the typical one dimensional, close minded film snobs that I'm use to and I have the freedom to write about a wide range of films. I love experimental, indie & "art house" films just as much as the next anthology film archives regular, but bottom line...I was watching Kickboxer and Marked For Death long before I was watching The Spirit Of The Beehive or the films of Tarkovsky. I’m writing about two Van Damme films back-to-back because as we all know his addition to the Expendables ensemble cast is the one that the fans wanted the most. Yes, even over Chuck Norris (which I honestly didn’t see coming). Don’t get me wrong, I'm excited about Norris being in the Expendables just as much as the next guy but it goes without saying that Van Damme (along with Steven Segal) represented that 2nd tier group of action stars right underneath Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger in the 90's. In my opinion Chuck Norris, who we'll be getting to in a later entry, is from a different era. Van Damme was on his way to being mentioned alongside the likes of Stallone and Willis but Timecop and a few more bad movies in a row started his downward spiral of direct-to-video releases that he wasn’t able to get out of until 2008's JCVD (which was ironically accepted more by the indie crowd more than it was accepted by your typical Jean Claude Van Damme fan). As I mentioned in my Lionheart write-up, Bloodsport is the one true iconic Van Damme film right down to that memorable VHS box cover art that any American boy born in the late 70’s/early 80’s should be familiar with...
And much like what Lionheart was to the USA network, Bloodsport was a staple on TBS & TNT in the late 80's/early 90's. When I was a kid flipping through the channels back in the day, there was a good chance that Bloodsport would be on either TBS or TNT at some random point in the day. Anyone familiar Bloodsport remembers all the famous quotes from; "OK, USA!" to "Very good...but brick don’t hit back". There's people who say "OK, USA!" and don’t even realize where that quote comes from. Little things like that make Bloodsport a classic.
Bolo Yeung/"Chong Lee"
Bloodsport, which is loosely based on a true story, is another fighting movie that predates (and inspired) stuff like Street Fighter & Mortal Komba. The movie follows Frank Dux (played by Jean Claude Van Damme at the height of his charm): an American soldier (who has a French accent for some reason) that goes AWOL from the military to participate in an underground fighting tournament with the best fighters from all over the world to bring honor to his former trainer (who's son was killed in the tournament a few years prior) and prove to himself that he's the best. What’s so great about Bloodsport is that all the fighters stand out and have their own little personalities that makes each of them memorable. You got the big Japanese sumo fighter (who clearly inspired the E. Honda character in Street Fighter), the loud, meatheaded rock n' rollin' American brawler (played by "Ogre" from Revenge Of The Nerds) and even not-so subtly racist characters like the African martial artist who trains by swinging from trees and cracking coconuts with his hands. But Frank Dux' biggest challenge in the tournament comes in the form of "Chong Lee" (Played by martial arts icon Bolo Yeung): an intimidating, sociopathic, brick house, killing machine. The character of Chong Lee, as well as Bolo Yeung’s performance, is pretty damn underrated in my opinion (seriously, all jokes aside). Bolo Yeung's overall presence and the way he casually strolls over to his opponents at the beginning of each match just before easily beating them is beyond intimidating. Not to make things too serious, but in terms of race, Bolo Yeung doesn’t get enough credit for pretty much destroying the stereotypes about Asian movie villains. From Ming The Merciless to Odd Job in the James Bond movies, the characteristics of most Asian villains were weak, sneaky and almost cowardly (even the villains in some Martial Arts movies). Bolo Yeung broke that mold. He always played an intimidating, muscular villain that would walk right up to you and beat the hell outta you. After Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly’s Afro, Bolo was the most memorable thing about Enter The Dragon (a film that inspired many future action movies, including Bloodsport). Sneaky and cowardly aren’t two words that describe the characters he played in movies (although his character does kinda cheat in Bloodsport, but at the same time he beats a guy to death with his bare hands so it kinda cancels things out). Naturally when the dust settles and we reach the finals of the tournament, Frank Dux and Chong Lee are the last two men standing.
An interesting thing about Bloodsport is that it features JUST enough scenes involving Vanne Damme doing the splits before it starts to feel a TAD bit too much...
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Another cool novelty about Bloodsport is that it’s one of the few Expendable-related movies to feature a future Academy Award winning actor (Forest Whitaker). Bloodsport is a good example of how Forest Whitaker paid his dues by playing the goofy, bumbling police detective assigned to bring Van Damme back to America for going AWOL. Think about how many actors that are nowhere to be found today that got billed over Forest Whitaker in Bloodsport...
To be honest, if you have yet to see Bloodsport you really have no business calling yourself a fan of action/"guy" movies and I cant imagine your anticipation for the Expendables sequel is that big. This is one of those movies that truly defines what the Expendables is all about.
