Definitely NOT my first time to watch this and (probably) won't be my last. But to be fair, this time, I _did_ fast-forward through all the boring parts (the romance, the hospital visits, the ride around Hong Kong at night, etc) and just watched the action parts. I mean, I've seen the movie; I know all the backstory and it's too cheesy to sit through THAT many times. I just wanted the fight scenes.

The fight choreography was stupendous in _Bloodsport_ . Far-fetched? Of course, but still a great martial arts film to disengage your brain and sit back and watch. Jean Claude van Damme still can't act (never could) but you don't watch films like this for Oscar performances. What JCVD can do (or at least, what he DID) is fight, and here he was probably at his best. (Although _Lionheart_ remains right there with _Bloodsport_ as far as fight scenes go.) This is just a great "fight" movie. The "cops" - or whatever they are - sent to retrieve Frank Dux and return him to the US Military are awful, as far as the storyline goes. They're too silly to be taken serious but not silly enough to seem like a cheesy joke so you're not sure whether to believe them or not. They just muddy up the story. Leah Ayres (as "Janice") continues to be awful and only adds to the atrocity of the story. Trust me, this is not a film you want to watch because of the storyline; you want to watch _Bloodsport_ only for that one thing: the blood-sport.

Bolo Yeung remains one of my favorite-ever Asian martial arts actors and carries his part to absolute perfection here. You can almost root for him, he comes across as so indomitable. I'm not sure how his English is but Yeung is one of the few actors I would genuinely enjoy sitting down and conversing with, if possible. He just plays his parts so well in every film I've watched him in. (As a side note, the dude is built like a truck; why would anyone go for his chest, shoulders, back, or legs in a fight? Stupid.)

Several of the fighter/actors in _Bloodsport_ are real-life martial artists and/or martial arts fighters, which makes the film that much more enjoyable. There's a hint of authenticity behind the choreography but watching this, it's easy to see why "mixed martial arts" - in the early days - never really got off the ground. It's completely awkward for fighters from two entirely different sciences to put on a "good" watchable fight; it's just too awkward. (If you don't believe me, go find the first 10 UFC cards on _ESPN Plus_ and watch them; you'll see for yourself how awkward it was for someone who was supposedly a black belt in karate to "fight" with a collegiate wrestler, and vice versa.) It's one thing to engage in combat when you have an idea of how and what your opponent is going to move but to try to combat a style you've never even encountered before is not only difficult, but very awkward...for both parties…but I digress.

Yes, it's very dated and the clothing, hair-styles, environment, everything is almost ridiculous (and I lived through this era!) but as far as the fight scenes go, this is still very entertaining. Not very realistic, no, but again, the fight choreography makes this fun to watch in spite of the poor acting. Watch the opening scenes, brace yourself to get through the "back-story" of Frank and his beloved "shidoshi" Tanaka, and then enjoy the fight scenes. You can skip through pretty much everything else but at least enjoy the fight scenes.