Over 30 years after its release, Bloodsport hasn't lost a fraction of its power to enrapture martial arts aficionados. Van Damme's flexibility and astonishing helicopter kicks made Bloodsport the fight film that had to be seen in 1988, made all the more mandatory viewing with Enter the Dragon's Bolo Yeung as the domineering villain Chong Li. Martial arts fans continue to cherish Bloodsport for exquisite training montages and fight scenes with a vast range of different disciplines showcased in the Kumite itself with Stan Bush's "Fight to Survive" only enlivening the film that much more. Based on the heavily disputed claims of Frank Dux, Bloodsport is a tournament movie that simply fires on all cylinders. In Van Damme's star-making role, he plays American special forces soldier Frank Dux, who goes AWOL in order to entering the shadowy and deadly underground martial arts tournament known as the Kumite. The '80s was the era when the martial arts tournament movie cemented its B-movie foundation, and Bloodsport is one of the best there's ever been in that distinguished arena. ![]() In the underground martial arts tournament sub-genre, The Quest is a true gem. Roger Moore also adds his reliable James Bond charm to the film as conniving thief and Chris’ semi-friend Lord Edgar Dobbs, while the massive Adbel Qissi looms over the tournament as a Mongolian boxer possibly Van Damme’s most imposing opponent ever. Martial arts fans have plenty to feast on with exponents of disciplines of martial arts as diverse as John Wick's competing in an MMA tournament decades in advance. Told in flashback from modern times, The Quest follows 1920s New York City pickpocket Christopher Dubious (Van Damme), who enters a secret martial arts tournament in Tibet known as the Gang-gheng. The Quest essentially dials up Bloodsport’s basic concept to much more grandiose levels, pitting fighters from different nations in a sprawling arena in epic fashion with Randy Edelman’s Hans Zimmer-worthy score. The best candidate for Van Damme’s most under-appreciated movie is also the one he made his directorial debut with in The Quest. Though Van Damme experienced a significant career decline in the late '90s, he staged a remarkable comeback with his semi-autobiographical movie JCVD, and he leapt back to the spotlight with movies like The Expendables 2 and his return to the Universal Soldier movie franchise. The success of the movie led to Van Damme steadily growing in popularity with other low budget hits like Kickboxer and Cyborg, and he rose to mainstream action movie recognition in the '90s in action films like Universal Soldier and Timecop. Eventually, Van Damme achieved his big-break in the 1988 martial arts tournament movie Bloodsport. The flexible kicking machine made his way stateside in his mid-20s, and gradually gained recognition in action movies like No Retreat, No Surrender, while adopting the stage name of Jean-Claude Van Damme. ![]() How do the movies of Jean-Claude Van Damme rank from worst to best? Hailing from Brussels, Belgium, Jean-Claude Van Damme (born with the surname Van Varenberg) took up karate as a young boy and had big dreams of coming to Hollywood to become a movie star.
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