Leofwine_draca BLOODMATCH is a particularly stupid kickboxing movie made when the craze for the sport was in full swing. It was directed by B-movie specialist Albert Pyun, never known for the quality of his movies, and as the hero (or perhaps that should be anti-hero) it stars Thom Mathews, best known for his comedic turn in the classic RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and its sequel. Mathews had a small career in action flicks in the 1990s but never really amounted to much and never recaptured that lovable quality he had in ROTLD. Here, he plays a guy seeking revenge for his brother's death, so he kidnaps a bunch of kickboxers, one of whom is the villain responsible. He then fights them in the ring. There's no more plot to it than that, and to say that this film is rough around the edges is an understatement. Worst of all, the action choreography is fairly poor, and the talents of the masterful Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez (who had made such an impact in Hong Kong cinema) are wasted.

Comeuppance Reviews Bad bad bad bad bad. "Bloodmatch" is another dud from the Albert Pyun canon. It's poor, even by his standards.Apparently, an unlikable jerk named Brick Bardo (Mathews)(a common name if you watch Pyun movies) is trying to avenge the fact that his brother was caught up in some illegal fighting and got in trouble, even though his brother was innocent. So he and his partner Max (Marianne Taylor), a former nurse whose fight moves make her resemble a female Andy Bauman, go around drugging and kidnapping the people he thinks are responsible. He rents the entire Las Vegas arena for his own personal vendetta and forces Brent (Dale Jacoby), the smug, "Johnny Cage"-style fighter, Billy (Urquidez), a janitor, Mike (Thunderwolf), who is similar to "Street Fighter"'s Dee Jay, and Angel (Carlton), a Linda McMahon-style fight promoter, to fight him in the darkened arena, because for some reason he feels forcing them to fight him in the ring will bring him closer to the truth."Bloodmatch" is dour, dry, dark and overlong at 85 minutes. Bardo, the supposed "hero" is a hateful, spiteful, annoying and unsympathetic lead. The supposed "villains" are much more likable, so you have to question the entire enterprise. For example, Billy is a hard working janitor with a daughter. Bardo is a smug heel, and if he was a good, likable character you could get behind, that would make all the difference. But for no explained reason, he's not. Like Bardo himself and most of the other characters, the movie itself is unlikable. Apparently a hero would be too much to ask here.You get the feeling Pyun doesn't know what he's doing and is not in control of the proceedings. The pacing is atrocious, it is glacial and the whole film feels like a slog. There are pages and pages of pointless, nonsensical exposition that no one cares about. The lighting is way too dark and grubby. There's a song in the movie, "In the Dark". Why rub it in? Be warned: this movie is NOT a punchfighter. It is a fake, a disgrace to the word "punchfighting". Seeing as there is so much needless, brainless and juvenile dialogue, we have, unfortunately, stumbled upon a new breed of awful movie experience: the "talkfighter". When there are fights, the editing is jagged, with obvious frames removed. There are weak moves galore that don't connect. It is never explained why Bardo practically kills everyone with ease. It puts a sleeper hold on the audience.The whole time, the audience is treated like it is stupid. It also feels like Pyun has never even seen a fighting film before and just decided to make one out of the clear blue sky. The result is disastrous.The only positive things you can say about "Bloodmatch" are that Urquidez does an impressive, if funny spin move, and the casting of Carlton, a Playboy girl, was smart as it keeps you from just ejecting the tape and setting it on fire with rage.Your "blood" will boil if you watch this "match" tonight.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

plantostickthat well well well.....How could this movie fail?with benny the jet, and a host of other talented kickboxers, this film was sure to be great......right...(Sarcasm kicks in here)It wasIt was truly excellentThe best part was the story, with characters who did nothing for the whole movie except kick each other. And the kicking was great too, simply because of the fight editing. An experienced editor would show one kick when the actor did one kick but this editor made the fighting 5 times better by replaying all the punches and kicks 5 times. Pure genius. This way, he has achieved his goal of completely confusing the viewer (how is that possible in a fight scene), because you dont know whether or not the punches are replayed or the real thing. So, you might as well fast forward throught the fight scenes because they are too mentally taxing (trying to figure out who hits each other). Then you can watch the story in all its glory.In my ignorance, i couldn't really follow the twisted plot, but it seems that billy's dad was killed in the desert, so now he can gather together all these kickboxers at random and get them into a ring, where he can proceed to kill all of them, even thought he knows they were innocent. This way, there is a lot of killing which makes no sense at all. This also gives the director an opportunity to throw in a sex scene. Great movie.(Sarcasm stops here)Crap movie. Why the hell did he kill all the people when he knew they were innocent? I thought he was the good guy!3rd worst movie everAfter bloodsucking freaks and bloodfight (Notice how all the crap movies start with blood)1/10

Hendu With Benny "The Jet" Urquidez filming the fight scenes and playing a part in the movie, I expected more. I've seen him do some great things in other films, but this one left me wondering. It's a revenge film filled with great martial artists, but it sure didn't turn out to be a great film. Very few of the actors/actresses could actually act and the fighting left a lot to be desired. There were a few good fight scenes, but overall this strange, low-budget effort fell short. See it only if you can't sleep. Rating 5/10