Street Fighter : L'Ultime Combat

Oh dear... I completely forgot that I watched this movie when it came out on theaters! I was a HUGE "Street Fighter II" fan and this movie was like a dream come true despite the fact that Guile was the main character; overshadowing Ryu and Ken. Still, I bought the idea and went to the theater with high expectations.

To be honest, the movie is not a disaster but it just didn't catch the vibe of the video game; it just didn't feel like "Street Fighter". The kung-fuesque action sequences were very interesting but didn't follow the greatness of the game. Mortal Kombat worked because it's characters were "real" persons while it was extremely complicated to get on the big screen real persons that were originally cartoons.

Also, the plot was very complex when the video game makes it very simple. Still I enjoyed the cheese factor of it. The producers and Director tried too hard to make it feel like the video game but they couldn't reach the objective. Sadly, this movie is remembered as one of the worst of it's kind. I'd say give it the chance to witness cheese at it's maximum.

R.I.P. Raul Julia.

I can't believe all the negative comments I've been reading here about this movie. Really, people, what were you expecting from a Van Damme movie? Citizen Kane? Yes it's silly, Van Damme's acting is atrocious and Raul Julia looks very ill (and is miscast) in his last theatrical film. Still, the movie is not overly violent (hence the PG-13 rating), the script and the actors never take things seriously for one moment, everybody (except for Julia and Van Damme) give out good performances and some of the jokes are actually pretty funny. Also there's a STRONG gay subtext between the Asian and American "friends". Maybe I'm seeing something that's not there, but the looks those two exchange at times... It's loud, it's VERY fast-paced...it's a HUGE amount of fun! It's not classic cinema...heck, it's not even good cinema, just fun! Turn off your brain and enjoy!

STREET FIGHTER (1994)

This movie has aged surprisingly well. It's always been bad but now it's so bad that it's kind of amazing. Based on the kick ass video game the makers do a crappy job of trying to string together a plausible storyline. But it does manage to have some over the top action sequences and some truly cringeworthy moments like Ming Na Wen delivering her best Chun Li speech before fly kicking a charismatic Raul Julia as Bison. Van Damme is also pretty hot and fun as "super american" Guile. The movie is overly fun and best of all there's never a dull moment.

Budget: $35m Box Office: $99m

7.5/10

"There can be only one".....film that is, which is worse than all others and THIS is it folks!

A movie for adolescent pea-brains. Not a solitary video-game has transferred to the big screen with even a modicum of success. Is money THAT available to make movies, that such an embarrassment as this could reach the point of actual RELEASE? Maybe no video distributor would touch it and they had no choice?

By far Van Dumb's worst flick. Playing Colonel William Guile, he leads his commandos against the seriously insane General Bison, dictator and megalomaniac of the fictitious Shadaloo. Filmed on the cheap, up on Australia's Gold Coast amidst the worst plasticised sets you ever saw. Phony explosions fill the sky, make-up is at the level of Grade 2 face-painting and a script to match. The acting beggars belief, Kylie Minogue's just about topping the list! This is seriously heavy-duty garbage! Much was made of the "singing budgie's" martial arts training for the film. From memory, she gets to perform a total of three high kicks which would be unlikely to cause distress to an elderly pensioner.

As for Raul Julia as General Bison? It was to be his last screen role, completed just before his death (maybe he saw the rushes?) It is a sad epitaph he would never have wished for. No-one comes out of this mess looking good, not even the paying audience - ESPECIALLY them! In hindsight, the very last scene sums up the cringe-factor..watch it!

This movie suffers from the same problem as most video game or comic book adaptations in the '90s. The people making it just don't take the source material seriously so the whole thing comes across as one big garish cartoon with no attempt at characterizations or an intelligent plot. It's supposedly for teenagers and adults but it's intellectually on a level only pre-teen children can enjoy. There is some entertainment here, but only in that disreputable "so bad it's good" guilty pleasure way. Most of the actors ham it up, particularly a slumming Raul Julia in his last film. Jean-Claude Van Damme is about what you expect, only with ridiculous dyed blonde hair. I did enjoy Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li but the rest are lame. This is also the disappointing film directorial debut of Steven E. de Souza, who had written the screenplays of some of the '80s best actioners. He also wrote this mess but unfortunately it's missing much of the wit that Die Hard, Commando, or Running Man had.