Bloodsport: The Dark Kumite (1999)

Swiss-born martial artist Daniel Bernhardt made a name for himself when he was chosen to star in the 1996 sequel BLOODSPORT 2 – THE NEXT KUMITE and the next installment, BLOODSPORT 3. Capitalizing on Bernhardt’s appearances in those two sequel comes this unrelated third sequel that should have been its own film and not capitalize on the BLOODSPORT name…and destroy the good name.

Bernhardt is John Keller, a police officer trained in martial arts as he infiltrated a recent underground fight ring as a fighter. When Keller learns his former nemesis, Schrek (Stefanos Miltsakakis), who was long thought to be dead, is alive, Keller tries to save the life of a fellow police officer, taken hostage by Schrek. When Keller’s partner Blaire tells John to take the shot, John is apprehensive and as a result, Schrek kills the hostage. However, this enables Keller to nab Schrek and have him arrested.

Things comes to a head when they learn that Keller has been sent to Fuego Penal prison, where apparently the prisoners believed to be executed are actually forced to fight in a tournament run by a sadistic man named Caesar (Ivan Ivanov). John decides to go undercover as a prisoner and by fighting, he soon enters Caesar’s tournament by faking his death, like the other fighters. However, when Schrek turns out to be one of the fighters as well, John sees this as an opportunity to nail Caesar and seek revenge on Schrek.

Only one question comes to mind when it comes to this film. Why did the filmmakers decide to ruin the good name that is BLOODSPORT? It seems as with most martial arts action film series, the series tend to somewhat deteriorate and this series marks no different. What makes it even more confusing is that Daniel Bernhardt plays a completely new character, in this case, John Keller. This time around, Bernhardt seems to lack the charm that made him a presence in BLOODSPORT 2 – THE NEXT KUMITE and plays a man set on revenge, somewhat similar to his role in BLOODSPORT 3, but with a lack of charm.

Stefanos Miltsakakis, a Greek-born Brazilian jujitsu expert, plays Keller’s arch nemesis, Schrek. He is the embodiment of a movie villain. He has the look, the size, and the martial arts skills that match. From making his film debut with Jet Li to working with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Philip Rhee, this movie marked his first big role and proves that can be a force to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, when it comes to Caesar, played by Ivan Ivanov, this is clearly where it hurts the film. Caesar acts like he is this Roman God-like man who has a bevy of beauties around him while he himself is the judge of the so-called “Kumite”, even dressing the part with decked out robes and making the arena look like a miniature version of Ancient Rome.

A major problem in terms of the so-called “Kumite” sequences is that the so-called arena in Caesar’s tournament looks very small compared to the platforms used in the previous films. It looks as if the fighters can barely move around and have to resort to more close quarters fighting. This may be okay now with the popular craze of mixed martial arts, seen in films like REDBELT and NEVER BACK DOWN. However, this comes at a time where people wanted to see more high kicks and overall, the fights didn’t look as exciting as the previous films. Jeff Moldovan, assisted by co-star Stefanos Miltsakakis, did their best and they get an A for effort, but compared to previous choreographers Frank Dux (Part 1), Philip Tan (Part 2), and Steven Ito (Part 3), their choreography is very pale. It doesn’t help either that there are not as many fights in this film as there are in any of the previous films. The fights themselves play an intricate part in the story as this is supposed to be a martial arts tournament film, or so we think.

It is clear that BLOODSPORT – THE DARK KUMITE is definitely not really worth a look as a whole film. The best idea is to see the fights, which aren’t that great themselves, and to see Stefanos Miltsakakis as the arch nemesis of our hero. As for Daniel Bernhardt, he may have lacked the charm from his previous installments, but thankfully he went on to better things like THE MATRIX RELOADED.

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