Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There are some movies that you actually are supposed to hate. Kind of like a dish that isn't good for you or doing a small bit of gambling, you know you aren't supposed to enjoy it because it's wrong. But hey, we all have vices, right? Bloodsport 2 is one of those movies for me.The premise of the movie is pretty simple. An arrogant thief named Alex Cardo, played by Daniel Bernhardt, gets caught by the police after being setup by his partner. It turns out that Cardo is already a good martial artist, but when he goes to jail, he meets a person with even "stronger kung fu", named Sun (James Hong). The rest is pretty straight forward from there. A reformed criminal seeks redemption, a student learns the Ultimate Technique from his master. Said reformed jailbird/student enters to the Ultimate Death Match tournament to honor his master and gain back his honor. Along the way, we get a lot of new faces (and some old ones as well if you've seen the first movie), a ton of fights, some big bad evil former student, and some pathetic facsimile of a romance happen.Probably the strongest point of this film is the fight choreography and action sequences. I actually believe that when they were brainstorming this film, they decided to make a tournament fighter featuring different styles of martial arts. But they needed something to try and ensure some modicum of notoriety, so they tied it into the languishing franchise of "Bloodsport" (thanks for Dux getting tacitly outed as a fraud), picked up the services of Pat Murita, and called it good.But back to the point, you see a ton of different styles in this film and nearly all the fights are very well done. Bernhardt does a reasonable job as a Van Damme-clone (despite being his first film) and special mention go to Ron Hall and Ong Soo Han for their roles in this film as well. Gibb reprises his role as Ray Jackson as well, but it's more for comedic effect. That said, he does a fine job hamming it up.Otherwise, there isn't anything wrong with the technical aspects of production. The story has a ton of clichés, some of the dialogue is downright awful ("You are a true warrior, Alex" is one of the single most out of place lines of all time. It's the Bloodrayne sex scene of dialogue, but without Loken's umm... assets). The romance sub-plot is outright horrible and seemed like it was forced in as an afterthought for the purposes of trying to mirror the success of the original film as much as possible. The musical score isn't anything fantastic, but they at least made the pieces "fit" as best as possible and a few of the tunes are catchy. Some of the segments of the film are legitimately funny (as intended) and provide a welcome relief from the boring secondary plot elements.On the whole, there isn't much to the film other than the fight sequences. It does take some time to get to what we all want to see. It's worth the wait (or just the use of the fast forward feature on your DVD or other methods of delivery). If you enjoyed the first film, are a fan of tournament fighting movies, or are a fan of Bernhardt or Donald Gibb, you'll enjoy it. Otherwise, you might be best passing on this.

Sequels are usually bad... Indeed, but this one... still passable. Of course, this film does not hold the good old magic and atmosphere of the 80s and it doesn't have Van Damme or Bolo Yeung, well you can't have it all. 90s were not that bad for this one. Daniel Bernhardt was not a bad replacement for Van Damme, but the problem is that he is constantly copying him! Especially in face expressions! But, OK, we are not here to compare these two guys, yes I know Van Damme is a real life champion and fighter, while Daniel is a model, but OK his fighting style and skills are good, he is good. Now, for the main stuff, this Kumite tournament was good! I like the fights, there is some karate, kung fu, judo, Brazilian jujitsu, tae kwon do... fine choreography... other things that are good are special appearances by Pat Morita and James Hong... the leading lady Lori Lynn Dickerson, very lovely, and to mention Philip Tan, well, at least we have Donald Gibb again as Ray "Tiny", as a main guard on kumite and promoter, still in his own comic relief... but he was used to look more like the first film. The story is rather different that from the first film, it is a classic low budget marital art movie. Alex Cardo (Bernhardt) get imprisoned after trying to steal a valuable sword from Pat Morita. During his time in prison, he learned so called "Iron Fist" from master Sun (James Hong). And after that he enters the Kumite tournament where he faces a fighter, former prison guard Demon, here played by Ong Soo Han, the guy's cube hair and acting makes his character look laughable, trying to be new Bolo Yeung aka Chong Li... but he still looks tough... OK, I say watch this film, but only if you are a fan of the franchise and martial arts fan.

Hello again fight fans and get ready for another dose of DANIEL MANIA!!!Well besides the first movie, this was the best tournament movie ever. There were plenty of fights, more than the first one, and the story was great not to mention the villian. Oong Soo Han was the absolute best Bloodsport villian ever. He was ruthless and nearly unstoppable. This movie also had more variety in it's combatants, not to mention the great choreography. This movie also had something no other tournament movie ever had and that was the fact that nothing interfered with the final battle. In most movies like this true fans are often let down when the movie has gone well and the director decides to confict some other event in the movie with the final battle. Trust me many great tournament movies have often been ruined by such stupid ideas. But thank god that the director of this movie had more sense than many others who would have ruined this masterpiece. I mean the final battle in this film went as smooth as a Rocky fight!! So all in all I give this a 10/10 and believe me it definitely earned every point!!!Be sure to keep your eyes open for my next DANIEL MANIA comment of the day!!!!Film Suggestions for DANIEL MANIA! tournament moviesBloodsport, The Quest, The Quick and the Dead, Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Enter the Dragon, 8 Mile, Mortal Kombat, Bloodsport 3, Game of Death, Grappler Baki.

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.