Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, Ming Na, Kylie Minogue Wes Studi, Damian Chapa, Byron Mann, Roshan Seth, Grand L. Bush, Simon Callow
Directed by Steven E. de Souza
Street Fighter is a tragedy for many reasons. The biggest reason is that the actors are pretty decent and yet despite their efforts the film just stinks. The biggest problem is the comic tone which is lame and the action sequences that are watered down. Indeed Van Damme isn’t actually too bad as Guile (Belgian accent aside) and Raul Julia (in his final role) is actually great, as is Na and Studi. The truth is that the film is a case of lame comedy overcoming the actors at hand. Also the film isn’t nearly as fun as the addictive video game. In terms of faithfulness, the film does detract from the video game as Ryu (Mann) is the hero of the game and not Guile (Van Damme) but whatever the case, this film is just plain tedious. Part of the problem is adapting this to little kids and hence the action is family friendly and lame as far as Van Damme movies go. Indeed this film is a disappointment for not only fans of the video game but also for fans of Van Damme as he doesn’t have a lot to do. Indeed even the fight sequences are fairly lame, which you think would be the selling point of such a movie. Indeed Street Fighter is downright dull on so many fronts that you wonder how director de Souza takes such a good idea and turns it into such a crushing bore. Indeed if it not for Raul Julia’s flamboyant performance as well as the other cast giving it their all, this film would be a total waste of time. As it is, the film is still a strictly sub-par effort that is a failure by any standard.
Cast: Kristin Kreuk, Chris Klein, Neal McDonough , Robin Shou
Directed by Andrzei Bartkowiak
This time this film (which is more of a reboot than sequel) finds Kreuk looking to avenge her father from M. Bison (McDonough) in a really terrible movie that is somehow even worse than the first. Look the original is a very bad movie but if you were to put this one next to the first, I bet many people would find the first to be not only superior but to be a 4-star movie by comparison. Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li is just an embarrassment. Starting with Chris Klein’s woeful performance and with how dull this film is. I really don’t know what to say outside of saying that this film is awful. The Story is full of clichés, the fight sequences are lame and the film is miscast all across the board. Seriously this is one of the all time worst video game adaptations and you have to wonder why they bothered with Chun Li , when Ryu is the hero of this video game series. Robin Shou meanwhile still seems to struggle to find anything worthwhile of his talents (his last decent movie was the first Mortal Kombat) while Klien’s laughable performance will have people changing their tunes about the 1994 debacle, that movie while bad, had the redeeming value in Raul Julia's great performance, this ridiculous and dull film doesn’t even have that and is somehow even duller than the first.
I know you've wanted me to do Street Fighter for a while, and I've also been meaning to get after the Chun-Li film as well. What was weird for me about part one was how family friendly it was, except for how they bring Blanca in, where he's brutally tortured and turned into a freak. I know the idea was to get a name like Van Damme, and that's why they changed the focus, but imagine if Mann was Ryu and they focused on him, and Sasha Mitchell was Guile? Can you think of a better Guile than Mitchell?
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen this second one yet, and may not until after I do the Hong Kong series for Wild Card posts.
When I said Street Fighter I meant the Sonny Chiba series. Both of these were bad...Although for Guile I would say Van Damme is better,Dolph would be better, I think Sasha Mitchell would be a better Fei Long or Thunderhawk. Sho Kosugi would be a good Saget.
ReplyDelete