Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite is a 1999 martial arts sports action film directed by Elvis Restaino, from a script written by George Saunders, while Alan Mehrez once again serves as producer. It is the fourth installment overall in the Bloodsport film series. Daniel Bernhardt returns to the series, albeit in the new role of John Keller. It was released direct-to-video in 1999.

Premise

Agent John Keller (Daniel Bernhardt) goes undercover into the tough prison known as Fuego Penal to find out about the corpses of prisoners disappearing without a trace. There he gets involved in a dangerous tournament, The Kumite, arranged by a man named Justin Caesar (Ivan Ivanov), where the prisoners are forced to fight to the death. The tournament has only one rule: There are no rules.

Cast

Production

The prison sequences were shot at a real prison in Bulgaria and actual prisoners were extras in the scenes. Although the film was shot in Bulgaria, Bloodsport 4 is set in the United States. This not only makes it the only Bloodsport movie set there, but the only Bloodsport movie to not be set where it was shot. Though Daniel Bernhardt stars in all Bloodsport films except the first, his character is different from Alex Cardo from Bloodsport III and is now John Keller in this film.

Reception

The film was panned by critics. Robert Pardi of TV Guide gave the film one star and said: "The good news is that you needn't bother watching the first three BLOODSPORT flicks in order to make sense of this sequel. The bad news is that it's pure Grade-Z schlock."

In other media

The film was distributed with various titles for the foreign market: