Street Fighter

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This movie and I have an interesting relationship. This review is largely my putting my cards on the table and fully admitting that for some reason - I like this movie. It's not even in the "so bad it's good" quality for me either. But I certainly wouldn't call it any kind of "good" film either. But it is perhaps the only time I've ever seen a video game movie have so much fun with itself. This is all just plain ridiculous, and so chalk full of characters from the series they just plain didn't seem to care. Ready for roll call? Let's get this all done at once.

Drug lord turned obnoxious dictator, General M. Bison (Raul Julia) has begun a civil war between himself and the Allied Nations, led by Colonel William F. Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who works with both Cammy White (Kylie Minogue) and T. Hawk (Gregg Rainwater). Bison holds several A.N. relief workers hostage and demands a $20 billion ransom in three days, all the while using DeeJay (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) as someone to show off to, and a sounding board. One of these hostages happens to be Guile's friend, Carlos Blanka (Robert Mammone), who is being experimented on by the reluctant Bison slave, Dhalsim (Roshan Seth) to create the first Bison super soldier. This of course makes it even more personal for Guile.

Meanwhile, con artists Ryu Hoshi (Byron Mann) and Ken Masters (Damian Chapa) act as con artists whose latest con involves providing arms dealer Vikto Sagat (Wes Studi) with fake weaponry. As a result, Sagat arranges for Ryu to cage fight his champion Vega (Jay Tavare). However, the party is busted up before anything 'Street Fighter'-like can happen by Guile, due to the breaking of a curfew. Upon seeing Ryu and Ken hold their own against Sagat's men in the prison yard, Guile recruits them, knowing Sagat is Bison's dealer, to assist in locating Bison in exchange for their freedom. This all involves Ryu and Ken gaining Sagat's trust, and causing an elaborate prison break in order to get to Bison's... base? and infiltrate it.

Meanwhile again, we have the crack news team of Chun-Li (Ming-Na Wen), Edmond Honda (Peter Navy Tuiasosopo) and Balrog (Grand L. Bush), each out for revenge with their own personal vendettas. Honda and Balrog want to get even with Sagat for ruining their respective Sumo and boxing careers, and Chun-Li is out to get revenge on Bison for murdering her father in cold blood. All of the characters paths manage to eventually cross, and we have a pretty big climactic free for all fight involving pretty much everyone except Dhalsim and Blanka, who get totally robbed of anything remotely interesting to pay attention to. They're really just here to provide names. Speaking of which, Zangief (Andrew Bryniarski) is here too, and probably the funniest part of the movie.

It's odd, but there's something to be admired about this movie. One can't possibly take it seriously, but when it comes down to it, I don't think we're supposed to. This is widely regarded as a bad movie, and even though I agree, there's still some strange charm this has to it for me. Considering Bison controls a lot from what seems to be an arcade top straight from the original arcade game (I think), it's hard to imagine that this is a film that ever took itself seriously. That said, let's get to the best part of the film altogether - Raul Julia. This was his final role, and despite it being so very corny, he definitely went out with a bang. He seemed to relish in this role, taking it on like he was really supposed to act as hard as he did. The contrast between his acting and most of the rest of the cast is actually kind of hilarious to watch.

This was a title I used to have on a VHS recording that I would watch constantly. Yes, there was that part of me I keep mentioning that was a sucker for the title. But I guess I always just found that cheesy charm to this compared to 'Super Mario Bros' and 'Double Dragon'. It's a hard thing to put my finger on, but for some reason this has lasted as one of my personal favourite video game movies of all time. Having said such a thing, do keep in mind that I still think about 98% of video game movies (that I've seen) are awful adaptations, or just plain awful movies. But once in a while you get something that's just here to have fun with, and it seems somewhat self-aware. I really think 'Street Fighter' is the ultimate case of that. If you haven't seen it in a while, check it out again, if only for a good laugh.

​2/5

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