The Gist:
General M Bison (Raul Julia in his final role) is in all out war and is holding a bunch of people hostage and will kill them unless his 20 billion dollar ransom is paid. On his tail is the all American flag tattooed Colonel Guile (Jean Claude Van Damme…no seriously) and in the mix there’s about fifty other characters and subplots all leading to an explosive finale.
The Review:
So you would think that after the abysmal failure that was Super Mario Bros. Hollywood would have learnt their lesson. The game Street Fighter, or more like Street Fighter 2 was one if not the first multi character fighting games out there which paved the way for every other fighting game out there. It had a cool multinational cast of characters, excellent controls and moves, and the story…eh it served the game well.
So a year after the Super Atrocity we’re given Street Fighter da movie. Van Damme plays the all American, funny accented Guile who has a bone to pick with General Bison, who has switched from the ice cold, hulking Psycho Power using-kick your arse just by thought-villain, to Raul Julia doing panto. However, his over the top performance is actually the highlight of the film.
Thrown into the mix are Ryu and Ken, downgraded to petty…something. It isn’t quite explained what they do or maybe I just forgot, I don’t know don’t care. Gone is the arse kicking vagabond Ruy and his also arse kicking brother from another mother Ken. Personally, I have no qualms if an actor doesn’t look like their game/comic book counterparts, -Christian Bale looked nothing like Bruce Wayne of the comics and look how that turned out-, but changing their nationality and characters is just plain wrong.
The Japanese Sumo wrestler E. Honda is changed to Hawaiian, (at least I think he is) Balrog the boxer and one of Bison’s henchmen is a good guy and friends with Honda. Cammy who was Bison’s brainwashed killing machine was Kylie Minogue. I understand that it would be difficult to find a eight foot behemoth to play Sagat, but hell they didn’t even try. I wouldn’t have minded if it all made sense but sadly it doesn’t. The film drifts from scene to scene, bad action set piece to bad action set piece. I mean damn, say what you want about J.C but the guy could throw a decent kick, which he does at the end and saves the world. Instead, he’s reduced to one liners, corny jokes and a roundhouse kick here and there.
So, if you haven’t seen it, here’s a quick rundown. Bison’s evil organisation Shadaloo is at all-out war with the Allied Nations. He has a group of A.N health aids hostage and will kill them using his ultimate weapon, a skinny ridiculous looking Blanka. Guile arrests Ryu and Ken and uses them as spies to gain Bison’s trust and infiltrate his compound. On the other hand there’s a news team, Chun-Li Honda and Balrog who have their own agenda with Bison.
For its credit, unlike Super Mario Bros, director Steven E de Souza did actually try and keep some form of consistency although failing miserably. Which is a shame really because this is the guy who wrote Die Hard, 48 Hours and Running Man for crying out loud. Where the bloody hell did it go wrong? Studio interference? Artistic license because the game story was silly? If it’s the latter, then oh was he proven wrong when Street Fighter the Manga came out which will be reviewed shortly.
So any positives to be found here? Well, for starters later productions such as Mortal Kombat and such would rely on filmmakers that actually played the game, there are some light humoured touches that worked well and Julia delivers one of the best responses ever: “For you, the day Bison graced your village it was one of the most important days of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.” And that line alone, nearly saved the movie. Oh on a positive about this film; it was better than Streetfighter: Legend of Chun Li…oh Jesus Christ I just realised I have to review that one now.
The Verdict:
A tiny step up from Super Mario Bros but that doesn’t mean squat. The only saving grace was Julia who sadly passed away shortly before the movie came out. If you’re a fan of video games or a fan of bad movies, there is some fun to be had. Van Damme really does appear to be enjoying himself and despite the accent, he could have made a pretty good Guile, if only the writing was up to scratch.
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