Street Fighter (1994)

Evil General M. Bison (Raul Julia) has captured a group of civilians and is holding them for ransom.  It is up to a group of soldiers led by Col. Guile (Van Damme) to save them in the next three days or they will be executed.  As Guile’s forces work on a plan, all of the characters in the video game are introduced in a 5-minute span.  The next few scenes involve heroes Ken & Ryu meeting up with the gun runner Sagat and his fancy lad Vega, while reporter Chung Li and her crew of Balrog and Honda try to go undercover and stop Bison.  If you don’t know who any of these people are, don’t feel bad.  You were fortunate that you didn’t have to watch this movie, or play the video game as a kid.  We wish we could give you more information on the plot, but sadly there isn’t much to speak of.  Anyway, everyone ends up fighting at Bison’s headquarters and does their signature fight moves from the game as evil is defeated.  Hurray!  Groan….

Alex’s Thoughts:  How do you get people to agree to be in a movie like this?  I’m sure money isn’t enough, you’d have to threaten their families or something.  The story is what it is; the game didn’t really have a plot, so they did the best they could. Fine.  But the acting… sweet shit is it bad.  The background characters are fine, they just have to sit there and look like their video game counterparts; but the main actors… come one.  Van Damme, I know you’re not Clark Gable, but at least try dammit.  That might be the most phoned-in performance I’ve seen in a while.  And Raul Julia, shame on you; this was your final role and I’m sure it is because this movie killed you.  If you’re an 11-year-old boy this movie is right up your alley. If you have a vagina or any common sense, you will stay away.  Actually, if you are 11 you probably shouldn’t be reading this, as we use the word ‘fuck’ quite a bit… you little fucker.   Alex Rates This Movie 3/10

Tim’s Thoughts:  As a kid and an avid video gamer, I was sooooo excited about this movie, but alas I was young and had no idea that video game movies were almost never a good thing. I saw this in the theater, and as a 16 year old, I was ready to walk out of my first movie. Somehow I didn’t and I think it was due to my optimistic nature, thinking that surely it has to get better…..I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s just a mish-mash of characters that you should be familiar with, and very little street fighting.  The acting is worse than what you could expect, and the lack of a plot doesn’t help. This was one of the first movies that as a kid, I was thinking, this is awful. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, with no redeeming qualities…..   Tim Rates This Movie 1/10

“It’s the Collection Agency, Bison. Your ass is six months over due, and it’s mine.”

View the IMDB entry for this movie here or add it to you Netflix queue