Street Fighter (Steven E. de Souza, 1994) Review

Yes, a lot of their costume colours are wrong...that's a sign of things to come.

I haven't reviewed a bad film in quite a while, have I? I also haven't seen any game adaptations in a while so I decided to pick up Street Fighter for £1.50 (nice)...it was simultaneously a good and bad decision. I'm sure you all familiar with guilty pleasures, you know, when a film is terrible but you love it anyway. Yeah, I have plenty but is Street Fighter one of these or is it just...bad. Let's find out.

Col. Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme) gathers his army of soldiers to the country of Shabaloo where is arch nemesis, M. Bison (Raul Julia), has left traces of activity there. Bison announces that he will let hostages be attacked by his new super soldier, Blanka (Robert Mammone), unless he is given money he demands. Meanwhile, two fighters named Ryu Hoshi (Byron Mann) and Ken Masters (Damian Chapa) trace their opponests, Vega () and Sagat (), to Bison's base and work undercover with Chun-Li (Ming-Na Wen) who is after Bison to avenge her home he ravaged in the past.

And so another film onto my guilty pleasure list. This is a bad, bad film but I really enjoyed it...well, I enjoyed the second half. The first half is incredibly dull, boring and I almost fell asleep. It was SOOOO cliche, generic and had nothing to do with Street Fighter except the names of characters. Once it hits the second half...it's still generic and stupid but the fact that they make the effort to make it look like Street Fighter and things get REALLY over the top, I just love it!

It's not 100% crap though. There are a few elements that I actually think are good. Raul Julia is easily the best actor in the film since he puts his all into M. Bison. As his last role, it seems like a worthy performance to end on with ultimate hammy acting. I also feel as if Jean-Claude Van Damme is actually putting effort into it. He tries. There are also some legitimately funny moments (mostly involving Zangief) which were surprising for a film that put no effort in the plot or making the action scenes memorable...yeah, they're pretty bland.

Street Fighter is a bad film, specifically a bad adaptation of a great game. The plot is incredibly generic and cliche with bland action scenes with stupid moments. Raul Julia is the only actor that could be considered 'good' but the others are likable despite, you know, one of them being Jean-Claude Van Damme. While I am aware that it's bad, I just can't help but enjoy it. By the end, it does look like the characters of Street Fighter have lept onto the screen (kudos to the costume designers) but...it's still stupid.

Verdict:
3/10
It's boring to begin with as well ascliche, generic, stupid and weirdly acted...but I still love it!

Also, why is E. Honda Hawaiian?......WHY IS E. HONDA HAWAIIAN!?!