Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Guile in a loose movie adaptation of the popular video game.
Loved
The hilarious unintentional comedy.
Liked
Raul Julia's performance. Seriously.
Disliked
The lack of street fighting.
Thoughts
Wow, what an entertainingly bad movie!
I liked how it included every character from the first two popular versions of the "Street Fighter II" franchise. It was kind of cool to see all the onscreen incarnations at the same time, and occasionally executing signature fight moves.
The only performance that was actually good was the late Raul Julia's last act. He chewed up each cheesy scene with panache and suave. An unknown Kylie Minogue played Cammy.
Unfortunately/fortunately, everything else was a train wreck. Every implausible plot point, Van Damm's lack of American accent, bad acting, and generic dialogue normally would cause me to roll my eyes. But here, they were greeted by my incredulous laughing. I loved how Blanka's prosthetic makeup was worse than 1970's The Incredible Hulk show. While the movie makers tried to be cool with their shout outs to the game, such as Bison using the famous joystick to attack, they just came off as lame. The worst part was trying to fit the characters into a ridiculous war-time hostage premise.
For fans of the video games, this was a fun epic fail of a movie to enjoy.
What I would change
Changed the plot to be actually about street fighting. And showed more of the signature moves.
