Bloodfist 2050 (2005)

Bloodfist 2050 (2005)- *

Directed by: Cirio H. Santiago

Starring: Matt Mullins, Glen Meadows, Beverly Lynn, and Joe Mari Avellana

Plot: See Dragon Fire (1993). Or, better yet, see Bloodfist (1989).


Okay, okay, we won’t be as lazy as Roger Corman and we’ll do our job. Sometime in 2050, Los Angeles is still a hellhole. (It was a hellhole in 2032 in Dragon Fire). Alex Danko (Mullins) travels to L.A. to get to the truth about his murdered brother. In order to get closer to the underground Punchfighting circuit where his brother fought, he gets a trainer and begins fighting in “The Pit” himself. After many bouts, which honestly don’t have much to do with his slain brother, he finally figures out the nefarious plan. But will it be too late?

Despite what you might, understandably, be thinking, this is not the 2,050th sequel to Bloodfist. It’s only the ninth installment in the series. Noticeably, the great Don “The Dragon” Wilson is nowhere in sight. Perhaps he cottoned on to the fact that this is as junky as all get-out and has a downmarket and cheap look to it.

It all opens with some stock footage from Dune Warriors (1990) and there is some attempt at marrying this with the 2005-shot footage. Some of it looks sped-up, as do some of the fight scenes. It’s also highly likely that there are repeated and/or stock shots of crowds as they cheer on the fighters. Edited in to all of this are the Corman specialty, stripping scenes. Between the stock footage, recycled footage, sped-up footage, and stripping footage – and keep in mind this movie is (mercifully) only about 75 minutes, we as viewers aren’t left with a whole heck of a lot.

Plotwise, Bloodfist 2050 is the same movie as Dragon Fire. It is a lower-rent version of Dragon Fire. Think about that for a second. When you’re a lower-rent version of Dragon Fire, there is a definite problem. Yes, it’s post-apocalyptic for no discernible reason. Yes, it’s a Punchfighter. Yes, all the exact same plot points are covered. But the question is: why? Instead of Dominick LaBanca, now we have Matt Mullins in the lead role. It’s clear he can do Martial Arts – but the attempt to do Hong Kong-style heavily choreographed, heavily stylized, fast fight scenes come off as humorous because they’re unnecessarily acrobatic for the cheapjack overall vibe.

Also, Mullins looks like a skinnier Freddie Prinze, Jr. but with Obama-styled ears. To make matters worse, his buddy in the movie, Randy (Meadows) looks exactly like him. At least the buddy role in Dragon Fire was filled by a dude who looked nothing like the main dude. Here they’re practically twins. Philippines movie mainstay Joe Mari Avellana did his best as the ring announcer and he resembles Johnny Depp here, strangely enough. The elderly assistant from Dragon Fire is nowhere to be seen. Just another example of how Dragon Fire is better (we never thought we would ever say that…)

Honestly, this is not Cirio’s finest hour. He let us off the hook somewhat because the movie is so short, but the whole outing is amazingly dumb and unnecessary. Does Corman think so little of us as viewers that he can just regurgitate the same movie again and again, and we’ll just consume this stuff and thank him for it? It would have been nice if we, the loyal viewers of this type of material, were given a little more credit. But, oh well, they can’t all be Stick Fighter (1994), I suppose. 

Bloodfist 2050 is a stain on the series as a whole, and only worthy if you are a completist of Punchfighters, a completist of the Bloodfist series, or you want to watch something short that’s so dumb it’s almost funny. Or you want to do an A-B comparison with Dragon Fire. Otherwise, it’s probably best to avoid this one, which shouldn’t be too tough.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty