At the apex of 1980's action excess, Jean-Claude Van Damme carved out a niche for himself in this low budget martial arts film. Bloodsport was a moderate success at the box office, but grew a much bigger following through home video and basic cable broadcasts. Its most prominent features include amateurishly hammy acting, choppy cinematography, and Van Damme's penchant for silly gesticulations, humorously odd facial contortions, and finding any pretext he can to do a split. Ryan and Rachel touch upon each of these points in their deconstruction of Bloodsport, but they also discuss its drawn-out production, gloriously cheesy soundtrack, surprising level of (intentional) humor, and the chemistry-free "romance" scenes with Van Damme's token love interest.
Naturally, one can't examine Bloodsport without noting the wild, unverified claims of Frank Dux, the fight choreographer who supplied the "based on a true story" elements of the movie's plot. Ryan spends a decent chunk of time detailing all the claims that Dux made about rescuing orphans, infiltrating the Chinese mafia, and single-handedly killing hundreds of Viet Cong soldiers in super-classified covert ops missions (being an army brat, Rachel has strong opinions about stolen valor).
Ryan also delves into the theory that Bloodsport is Donald Trump's favorite movie; this leads to a rundown of the favorite films of various presidents.
