In The Ancient Japanese Event Of Kumite, Fighters From Different Martial Arts Backgrounds Battle For Survival…
Starring: Daniel Bernhardt, Stefanos Miltsakakis, Michael Krawic, Ivan Ivanov, Lisa Stothard
Director: Elvis Restaino
1999 | 93 Minutes | Rated R
“You picked a fine day to die, Keller.” – Billings
I’ve seen the original Bloodsport many, many times but never ventured into any of the Daniel Bernhardt sequels. I’ll have to find the others but Netflix has #4 so I figured I would give it a gander despite the horrible reviews I have read.
John Keller (Daniel Bernhardt), a cop investigating the execution of death row inmates finds himself forced to fight in a spectacle of violence and death staged by a sadistic warden.
The story is one that we have seen dozens of times. That in and of itself isn’t enough to completely turn me off to any movie, though. The tiny morsel of originality that it DOES have is completely weird. This movie is really, really weird. The sets, the characters… everything.
The host of the Dark Kumite is a weirdo calling himself Justin Caesar. He holds it in this bizarre cathedral / mansion located on Heavens Hill. The throngs of tournament attendees are dressed in Victorian garb – complete with medieval song and dance.
Keller is forced to wear the goofiest, least fight appropriate outfit of the bunch. He has this cloth sleeveless trench coat looking thing that he wears through all of his fights… never opting to take it off.
And the fights… the one possible saving grace in this mess of a movie… were average at best.
I’ll still try to track down Bloodsport 2 and 3… hopefully they’re better than this. The only people that are likely to be glad they’ve watched The Dark Kumite are completists and masochists.
Action Movie Fanatix 