Is it the worst Video Game Film? Is it the best? Is it one of them?
1994's Street Fighter is an odd duck, as it is a real creation of the '90s. This goes both ways.
* On one hand, the Film is full of dumb explosions, cheesy dialog, lots of fighting and dated attire.
* On the other hand, it is such a trainwreck that you can't help but look at it.
It comes to us from Steven E De Souza, a man with so many big credits to his name. As a Writer, he was the man (partly) behind Die Hard, 48 Hours and Commando. He also has lots of *infamous* Films to his name like Hudson Hawk, Judge Dredd, Jumping Jack Flash, The Spirit (TV Movie) and Knock-Off. I guess this Film too.
There are lots of Behind the Scenes aspects to this Film to learn too, like how the Script was being rewritten every day, Van Damme's $10,000 a week cocaine use and Raul Julia working through Cancer that would kill him before the Film's release.
With all of that said, is it an enjoyable ride? Let's see...
A madman named M. Bison (Golden Globe Winner Raul Julia) is in control of a Country, a small army and lots of crazy technology.
He also has the biggest of big screen TVs to watch News Reports about himself, only it shows up behind bars like a bad iMPACT Wrestling Match.
On the other side, Colonel Guile (totally-American Jean Claude Van Damme) is trying to take him down!
He has machismo, a small army and a lovely hat on his side.
At the same time, a pair of low-level criminals (Ken and Ryu) run afoul of an Arms Dealer named Sagat (who seems to be Thai in his backstory, but is played by Wes Studi).
They try to trick him, but end up caught with him (and his men) by Guile.
Random Trivia: they hired the real 'Good Morning, Vietnam' guy to do the PA Announcements (that most people miss amongst the fighting and explosions.
Crafty Guile sets up a long con involving the criminals working with Sagat to get to Bison.
In the long run, it causes more harm than good, since...
A Reporter (Ming-Na Wen) is actually a Spy trying to take out Bison due to a person vendetta (and the fact that he's a War Criminal).
This is so awkward that even Bison chides them for their foolishness.
When that guy is talking shit to you, you've messed up!
Guile is told to not attack Bison, who is getting his massive ransom for like 10 Aid Workers. Mind you, he's probably spent billions on manpower and his tech in the meantime.
Of course, Guile still attacks, setting up our Third Act.
Oh and he briefly-pretended to be dead...not that it made much of an impact on the Plot.
During the battle inside of the compound, all of the Sub-Plots (like Chun-Li's revenge plan and the redemption arc of Ken and Ryu) come to a head.
Everyone gets an enemy to fight like a Comic Book as well.
Somewhere during all of that, Blanka is created.
It's really not that important until the Sequel...oh, right.
The big fight is Guile against Bison, which goes poorly for the latter at first.
Since this Film is not using magic or super powers, he can't do his usual stuff...until he uses the power of Bullet Train Technology (why not?) to let himself fly around and shoot lightning.
Bullet Trains- they shoot lightning.
Our Heroes beat their rivals and the day is saved, our Heroes getting in their Video Game poses in with a totally-logical demeanor.
Cheer like a Teenager, Chun-Li (the bad-ass Spy). The End.
A strange, but enjoyable mess of a Film. Given all of the chaos and the rushed time-table, it's kind of amazing that a Film even got made here, to be fair. That's certainly not a full excuse for De Souza literally ripping pages out of the Script when they ran over schedule though.
As a Video Game Film, it is closer than you might think. Like Mortal Kombat (which nearly starred Van Damme instead), they give you all of the Characters in a good-to-passable state without overdoing it (like Mortal Kombat: Annihilation).
That said, there was almost no point in using Dhalsim, Blanka, Cammy or T-Hawk here. Just saying.
The Film is a bizarre mish-mash of bad humor, surprisingly-good humor (mostly from Zangief) and stuff that just feels really out of place. It's enjoyable if you don't expect genuine quality and embrace the insanity. Speaking of insane (for more than one reason), enjoy this out-of-place
John Wayne Gacy reference...
Next time, I try to clear out my excess Film overflow some more. I've got...lots of randomness to share. Stay tuned...
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