Shootfighter: Fight to the Death

1993
R
1h 36m

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

Bolo Yeung, Michael Bernardo, and William Zabka in Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1993)

Fight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them plenty of practice in no rule fights.

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Fight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them ... Read allFight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them plenty of practice in no rule fights.Fight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them plenty of practice in no rule fights.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
In the original cut of the film, James Pax's Teng was the primary villain, having been defeated by Bolo Yeung's Shingo in a previous Shootfighting match, thus leading him to set up his own tournament to lure him back for a rematch. This is also why some international VHS summaries of the film have the line "From the day they were born, Shingo and Teng had been trained and primed like human bombs to explode." However, after internal screenings, additional funding was put towards reshoots, which would bring in Martin Kove as the film's new villain, Lee, and changing Pax's character to a subordinate villain. The reshoots would also add the new "octagon" location for the finals (most likely introduced into the production by Kazja Patschull, who would also play "Skeeter"), and ramp up the violence level in these new fights. The only footage released publicly of the original cut of the film came from a film market trailer/"sizzle reel" (awkwardly set to Giorgio Moroder's "Ivory Tower" from The Neverending Story), showing the original fights with Bolo VS Pax, as well as deleted dialogue segments.

Goofs
(at around 1h 29 mins) In the end fight, Lee fights Shingo. Lee throws several punches to Shingo's head. Shingo dodges them, but you still hear a punch impact sound.

Alternate versions
When this was first released on video, two version were made: A 94-min R-rated version and a 96-min. unrated version. The unrated version contains more blood and gore and uncut mortal kombat type fatalities. Cut scenes include:
Lee (Kove) tearing out Shingo's friend's throat.
At the end of the exhibition match between Boa and Buck, Buck picks up Boa by the throat on to the cage and tears his heart out while Boa spits out blood and blood squirts from the heart. In the R version, we just see Buck slam Boa on to the cage and here him punch into Boa's rib cage and about five to eight cuts.
A fighter gets his throat slashed and blood sprays out of his throat and blood flows out of his mouth. He then falls on the mat and blood starts leaking out of his throat into a puddle of blood on the mat.
During another fight, a fighter grabs his opponent's arm and bites a piece of his flesh off. He then spits out the chunk of flesh. In the R version, we see him knaw on it from a distance.
In the fight between Ruben and Hawk, Hawk is about to get back up to fight Ruben. But since Ruben's sword was pointing down, the sword went into Hawk's stomach. In the unrated version, we see blood leaking out of his stomach and at some times start to squirt.
In the last fight between Shingo and Lee, Shingo grabs Lee's arm and shatters it and the flesh bursts open exposing the bone and blood from the inside. We then see Lee's battered face and him screaming. In the R version, we just hear Shingo break Lee's arm and then we see Shingo jump down on Lee with a falling knee attack to Lee's back. The R-cut is rarely available to rent and has only been seen on HBO and Cinemax. All rental outlets rent only the Uncut version.

Connections
Featured in Bad Blood (1994)

User reviews20

Review

Featured review

6/10

Surprisingly good...

Okay, well I have had the 1993 movie "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" on DVD laying around for several years before I actually got around to watching it. Having picked it up at a cost of next to nothing in the local thrift shop, I only got around to watching it after a friend said it was actually a good movie.

I had always put off the movie on two accounts, first and foremost because of the lousy title. I mean, "Shootfighter", come on. What does that even mean? It is just hands down one of the worst and most laughable titles I have seen to a movie. And I can't claim that I have been much of a fan of Bolo Yeung neither.

However, I must admit that "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" was actually a good movie, it was somewhat reminiscent of the "Blood Sport" movie in many way, yet mixing in elements from other martial arts movies. But still, writers Judd Lynn, Larry Felix Jr., Peter Shaner and Robert Ginty managed to put together an enjoyable enough script for director Patrick Alan to bring to life on the screen. Sure, the storyline was pretty straight forward and somewhat generic for an early 1990s martial arts action movie, but isn't that what makes it all the more enjoyable?

Something that definitely surprised me about "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" was the cast ensemble. They definitely had a lot of familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Bolo Yeung, William Zabka, Martin Kove, George Cheung and Gerald Okamura. I have to admit that "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" was actually one of the better movies that I have seen Bolo Yeung in, aside from "Blood Sport". And it definitely was fun to have Martin Kove and William Zabka back on the screen together after having seen them in the movie "Karate Kid" and later again in the "Cobra Kai" series.

There was a good amount of display of martial arts in the movie, and let's just be honest here, that is why we watch these movies, isn't it? To see impressive martial arts and fight sequences. And "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" definitely has that. Sure, some of the martial arts performers weren't really great actors, but they definitely knew their fighting well enough.

I found "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" to be genuinely entertaining and enjoyable. It was a trip down memory lane and back to when I was a teenager, growing up with these martial arts movies. Just look beyond the laughably bad title, and you have a rather enjoyable movie on your hands.

My rating of "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death" lands on a six out of ten stars.