The Bloodfight/Ironheart Double Feature from MVD through their “Rewind Collection” touts it has “2 Bolo Yeung Classics” and while he’s in both of the movies, they are minor roles. Beyond that, neither movie is very good.
Bloodfight/Ironheart
— MVD Rewind Collection | Double Feature —
(1989/1992)
Genre(s): Martial Arts
MVD Entertainment Group | R – 192 min. (total) – $24.95 | August 11, 2020
Date Published: 10/14/2020 | Author: The Movieman
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MVD Visual provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 1½/5 |
Plot Synopsis (Bloodfight): The film takes you back to the “arena of death”. Chang (BOLO YEUNG) is the ruthless and unbeatable title holder of the World Free-Fighting Tournament. Kai (YASUAKI KURATA), an ex-champion believes different and trains a young student (YAM TAT WAH) to capture the title. In the final match, Chang shows no sympathy for his young challenger and leaves him motionless in a pool of blood. Kai, outraged, faces off against Chang at the WFFT for one final confrontation, a Bloodfight that will leave only one man standing. Quick Hit Review: Not terribly well made, in fact the editing is at times atrociously jarring and the characters not developed all that great, with our main hero, Kai, early on takes on a street thug as a protégé before seeing, shocker, the guy was also an a-hole, beating up innocent civilians. Perplexing decision making. The film does give Bolo Yeung a bit more to do compared with Ironheart and there is one effective scene, in which he outright commits murder, but otherwise the martial arts fights are standard and the story could’ve use some tightening. 1.75/5
Plot Synopsis (Ironheart): Martial arts expert John Keem (BRITTON K. LEE) is out for revenge, but he’s in for the fight of his life. His target is Milverstead (RICHARD NORTON), the ruthless drug dealer that kills his best friend. But to succeed, he’s going to have to take on Ice (BOLO YEUNG), Milverstead’s evil and deadly henchman. Quick Hit Review: Ironheart is a jumbled mess of a film, even worse editing compared to Bloodfight and a lead actor who possessed absolutely zero charisma and we as the viewer are forced to follow him from beginning to end. Bolo Yeung I don’t believe had any dialogue and if he did, maybe a line or two, serving as the muscle for the bland and forgettable villain. There’s not much of a plot and some elements are a bit confusing, such as the villain being a gun dealer but also kidnaps women to give a “gifts” to his high class buyers. Odd. On a more personal side, and probably the only reason this kept my attention, was this was filmed in my home state of Oregon, in Portland. Also features a sweet 80s dance song that they play all the way through during the opening credits (and a remixed version towards the end). 1.25/5 |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0/5 |
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This release does come with a retro VHS-style slip cover. Only features are trailers for both films along with the others in the MVD Rewind Collection. |
VIDEO – 2¾/5 |
| Both Bloodfight and Ironheart are presented in their original 1.78 and 1.85 aspect ratios respectively, and while it is nice to have these movies on Blu-ray and from what I can discern, any DVD releases are long out of print or Amazon’s information is incorrect. In any case, both movies are in 1080p high-definition and thanks to what I assume were a low budget, and/or lack of a quality original source, this looks rather washed out and each littered with dust marks and specs. Detail at least was okay on the close-ups but otherwise these are not pristine transfers, though in fairness not sure they would be worth putting money into either. |
AUDIO – 3¼/5 |
| Each film comes with a PCM 2.0 track and as with the picture, it doesn’t always sound the best, however I’m almost positive this was more due to some less than stellar sound design than the transfer itself. As such, dialogue sometimes had an almost hollow effect if not also lower levels and not terribly impressive depth even being a stereo track. I believe it was in Ironheart there was an apparent hissing during some lines. |
OVERALL – 2¼/5 |
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The Bloodfight/Ironheart Double Feature from MVD through their “Rewind Collection” touts it has “2 Bolo Yeung Classics” and while he’s in both of the movies, they are minor roles. Beyond that, neither movie is very good, in fact Ironheart was tough to sit through, but I think under a group setting, might make for a fun double-header. |