Review - Street Fighter (1994)

      Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, since we've talked about the Mortal Kombat franchise in the past, I think it's a good time to discuss other movies based on popular fighting games. And, a good one to start with is the 1994 movie Street Fighter, written and directed by Steven de Souza, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, Ming-Na Wen, Damian Chapa, Byron Mann, Kylie Minogue, Grand L. Bush, Peter Tuiasosopo, Jay Tavare, and Wes Studi. 

       So, the movie tells of how the Allied Nations troops, led by Col. William F. Guile, have seized control of the southeast Asian port city of Shadaloo, but are struggling against the heavily armed forces of deranged warlord General M. Bison, who has abducted a large number of relief workers and three Allied Nations soldiers, and has set a ransom of US $20 billion. Guile, while being asked for a comment by news reporter Chun-Li Zang, speaks directly to Bison himself, who has his subordinate, Dee Jay, hack the feed to communicate with Guile. And, it's during this exchange that the last surviving soldier Bison has as a hostage is Guile's friend Carlos "Charlie" Blanka. With this knowledge, Bison has Blanka taken to his laboratory, where scientists will turn him into a lethal monster. 

      It's here where we meet a pair of hustlers, Ken Masters and Ryu Hoshi, who are attempting to swindle arms dealer Viktor Sagat, who already figured out their plan. But, after seeing that both men are skilled martial artists, Sagat decides to put both Ken and Ryu against his current cage fighting champion: Vega. Unfortunately, just as Ryu and Vega are about to fight, Guile busts in and arrest everyone in Sagat's club for curfew violation. The next morning, during a meeting with his captains, Guile is attacked by an assassin under Sagat's employ, which leads Guile to believe that Sagat is supplying arms to Bison and could lead the A.N. troops to Bison's hideout. 

     Unfortunately, Sagat doesn't trust easily, so planting a spy in his ranks would be difficult. And, it's here where Guile sees Ryu and Ken's skills, and meets with them to discuss a plan. A plan that involves Ken and Ryu picking the keys from Guile's subordinate T. Hawk, stage a prison escape, and shoot Guile to stage his death. And, as the truck drives off, Chun-Li plants a tracker on the truck. Attempting to follow the tracker, Chun-Li and her crew, Balrog and E. Honda, discover interference caused by another tracker. Investigating the tracker source, Chun-Li discovers that Guile is alive, and she reveals her true motivation: she doesn't want a story on Bison, she wants to kill him. And, as she's taken away by Cammy and T. Hawk, Chun-Li breaks loose and escapes. 

      At a bazaar outside of Shadaloo City, Chun-Li, Balrog, and E. Honda pose as part of the entertainment, and they speak in private to Ken and Ryu, and Balrog and Honda reveal how their respective boxing and sumo careers were ruined by Bison and his ilk. And, Chun-Li reveals that they have a plan to end both Bison and Sagat that night. However, Ken and Ryu inadvertently give Bison and Sagat early warning, which leads them to discover a message from Chun-Li, followed by a caravan car full of explosives rolling towards them. Bison orders an evacuation, and the camp is cleared out. Bison's men capture Chun-Li, Balrog, and Honda. 

        Luckily, the explosion at the camp is tracked by the A.N., as is the tracker being carried by Ken and Ryu, with the latter uncovering Bison's base in an abandoned temple. Discussing strategy, Guile suggests taking a stealth boat up river to the temple, destroying the perimeter radar and enabling the entire A.N. deployment to approach undetected. And, when one of the captains implies that whoever drives the boat would have to be out of their mind, Guile remarks "Well, fortunately, Bison has driven me crazy. So, I'm going to do it." 

      At Bison's base, Ken and Ryu are rewarded, Balrog and Honda are taken to be tortured, and Chun-Li is taken to Bison's lounge for an exclusive interview. And, it's during this interview that Chun-Li reveals her ultimate motive. Twenty years earlier, Chun-Li witnessed as Bison murdered her father, who was standing against him to defend their village. And, Chun-Li would spend the next twenty years training, learning martial arts, and becoming a journalist, all so she can get close to Bison and avenge her father. However, Bison shrugs her claims off, first by remarking "For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday." And, Bison also remarks that no one has seen Chun-Li fight, and thus she poses no real threat. But, as she breaks loose, Chun-Li showcases her skills as a total badass. 

      At the same time, Ken and Ryu attempt to rescue Honda and Balrog, but are initially overwhelmed by the duo. Attempting to reason with them, Balrog mishears Ken's claim by assuming he said that they could lead the duo outside. But, what Ken ACTUALLY said was "We're on the same side," and Ken clarifies this. So, the quartet of heroes reach Chun-Li as she's fighting Bison, causing a distraction and allowing Bison to get to safety before gassing the room. 

       Guile, meanwhile, prepares his troops, but is called off by A.N. representatives who have decided to pay Bison's ransom. But, when asking too many questions, the A.N. rep asks if he's lost his mind, to which Guile remarks "No. You've lost your balls," prompting the A.N. rep to relieve Guile of command. Guile them speaks to the troopers, revealing that the war is being called off, their brothers and sisters in arms gave their lives for nothing, and Bison is getting paid off for his war crimes, but everyone can go home. And, it's here where Guile gives the impassioned statement "Well, I'm not going home. I'm gonna get in my boat, and I'm going upriver, and I'm going to kick that son of a bitch Bison's ass so HARD, that the next Bison WANNABE is gonna feel it." And, with this rallying cry, the troops decide to join Guile and bring Bison down. 

       Back at Bison's base, Bison berates Chun-Li, Ken, Ryu, Honda, and Balrog for working against each other, and they may have been successful working together. But, Dee Jay warns of some strange goings on along the river, with Guile's stealth boat destroying the radar stations, but are found out, and Bison uses water mines to destroy the boat. Meanwhile, Dr. Dhalsim, who was being held as a hostage scientist by Bison and forced to experiment on Blanka, does what he can to preserve Blanka's mind and preventing him from being a danger monster, despite Bison's loyal scientists mutating Blanka's body into the monstrous appearance. While being tossed around by Bison's guard, Dhalsim unleashes Blanka, who saves him. 

      Arriving at the base, Guile breaks in, and winds up in Dhalsim's lab, where Dhalsim reveals that he tried to save Blanka's mind, remarking how there's both good and evil in Guile's old friend, and asks "Would you kill him simply because he has trouble understanding the difference?", and remarks that Bison is expecting Blanka, and Guile has a chance to take Bison down. Using this opportunity, Guile enters Blanka's pod as it rises, emerges from it, and kicks the hell out of Bison. And, in addition to securing the hostages and getting them to safety, we FINALLY start getting some fights, such as Guile vs. Bison, Ken and Ryu vs. Sagat and Vega, and Honda vs. Zangief. 

       With the hostages secure thanks to Cammy, T. Hawk, Balrog, and Chun-Li, Guile shifts his focus on Bison, who has utilized a form of electromagnetism to overpower Guile. However, Guile pulls through and defeats Bison. During his escape, Dee Jay is accosted by Zangief, but Dee Jay puts in perspective how Bison was the real villain, and Dee Jay stuck around because Bison paid him a fortune. Dee Jay and Sagat escape with a trunk full of Bison's useless currency, and Zangief joins out heroes and helps them escape. However, Guile returns to Blanka, who refuses to go back because of his new appearance, and Dhalsim reassures Guile that Blanka won't be alone, as Dhalsim must atone for his part in Bison's plot. Outside, Guile reunites with Cammy and T. Hawk, accepts Ken and Ryu's offer to help make Shadaloo better, and agrees to a one-on-one interview with Chun-Li, and the movie ends with our heroes in an epic team pose. 

       Street Fighter isn't exactly one of the best movies out there based on a popular video game. But, it's definitely fun in that "cheesy '90s movie" kind of way. The performances range from average, to cartoonishly hilarious, to the epitome of awesome. The one performance that didn't quite fit was Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile. I mean, the video game version of Guile is the most all-American dude in the series, to the point of a massive flat top and an American flag tattooed on his arm. So, a Belgian playing an American? Eh. 

      On the other hand, Raul Julia as M. Bison is absolutely fantastic. Remember, this was his final acting role before his tragic passing, and he put his all into it. Talk about a genuine professional. And, if Raul Julia as Bison was delectably over the top, Wes Studi as Sagat was far more subdued by comparison. And, I will say that it was awesome to see two highly accomplished actors taking on two iconic video game villains in the same movie. 

      As for the other actors, the duo of Damian Chapa and Byron Mann as Ken and Ryu were absolutely fantastic, as were both Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li and Kylie Minogue as Cammy. The duo of Grand L. Bush as Balrog and Peter Tuiasosopo as E. Honda were pretty entertaining, as well, and I loved seeing Peter Tuiasosopo's Honda going toe to toe against Andrew Bryniarski as Zangief. Speaking of which, Andrew's performance as Zangief was absolutely hilarious, and he definitely had some of the funnier lines in this movie. Lastly, there's Jay Tavare as Vega. While certainly not leaving an impact, he still looks awesome, and does have a few decent fight scenes in the movie. 

      But, now it's time to get into the real meat and potatoes as to the issues with this particular Street Fighter movie, and it's twofold: the plot, and the lack of martial arts fights. The plot itself plays out less like what fans would expect from a Street Fighter movie and comes off more in line with a James Bond movie. Now, if there were plentiful martial arts fights to make up the difference, I don't think fans would mind as much. But, therein lies the issue. In a movie literally called Street Fighterz there are next to NO martial arts fights in the damn movie. Literally, in moments before a fight between some of the key characters from the games is about to start, the fight is stopped before it starts. The only time we GET any fights between the Street Fighter characters in this movie is in the final act. BOOOOO!!!!

      But, admittedly, this movie has gotten a slightly warmer reception over the years, and many have accepted it as a cheesy '90s movie. What was the cause? 2009's Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which was arguably a WORSE live-action adaptation of Street Fighter with portrayals of characters that don't match their game counterparts at all. Luckily, it seems like Hollywood is taking another crack at bringing Street Fighter to life, as Paramount and Legendary are set to release a new Street Fighter movie with a cast that includes Cody Rhodes, Jason Momoa, and Andrew Koji. And, we'll see if they get it right this time. 

     As for the 1994 Street Fighter movie? Maybe watch it of you got some buddies over, pop some popcorn and some beer and watch it for a few decent laughs, I guess. Aside from that, don't know if I can wholly recommend this one. 

     Alright guys, it looks like next time, we're looking at another live-action movie based on a bestselling fighting game. So, join me when I take a look at the 2009 film Tekken.