...And perhaps deservedly so? OK, so any movie, especially a martial arts movie starring "B"-movie Kickboxing phenomenon Don "The Dragon" Wilson, with backing by Roger Corman, is bound to not be good, right? Yeah, pretty much. I'll admit to watching and video-recording the first two "Bloodfist" movies that feature "The Dragon" as American Kickboxing champ Jake Raye, who's kicking the bad guys' butts in the Phillippines. In both movies, Raye has to fight in brutal martial arts tournaments and also get out of some sort of convoluted mess of a plot. But in "Bloodfist II," Raye returns to Manila, this time to help out a friend named Vinny Petrello (former UFC champ Maurice Smith) who is in some sort of trouble. It turns out to be a trap, and Raye is kidnapped along with six other martial artists (whose styles range from Greco-Roman Wrestling to Judo to Shotokan Karate) and forced to fight a group of chemically enhanced brutes in a series of Roman-style, to-the-death gladiator fights arranged by Su (Joe Mari Avellana). Now with the rising popularity of mixed martial arts all over the world and my own personal interest in this sport, it would make sense that a movie like "Bloodfist II" would get some more attention, since it deals with fighters of different styles coming together to show whose style is the best. (But didn't they do that in 1988 with Jean-Claude Van Damme's movie "Bloodsport"?) Yet, this entry, by director Andy Blumenthal, has pitiful acting, lousy dialogue, Jake's poorly timed relationship with Su's daughter Mariella (Rina Reyes) and just about everything else, except the fights, with the actual tournament not starting until the third act of the picture. The illegal underground martial arts tournament story has been done to death already. How about fighters competing in a legal martial arts tournament for once? And lastly, there's Wilson. He's far from a great actor, but his performance is pretty much limited to his Kickboxing skills, which shows that his title as "The Dragon" seems rightful. Too bad, he could've been a great cult movie martial arts star if his career and "B"-movie choices had panned out a little better.
4/10
