Customer Reviews

Street Fighter

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(54)

 

 

Okay, I don't think anyone can reasonably argue that this movie is good; at least, not in any conventional sense. The acting, except for perhaps Raul Julia, is sub-par at best, the story is ridiculous, and even the fight scenes aren't very well-executed (pretty bad for a film with the title Street Fighter, huh).

So why am I giving this 5 stars? Well, for starters, I was all of 8 years old when the film came out, and deeply in love with video games, especially Street Fighter II, which this film is (loosely) based on. I also liked Jean-Claude Van Damme for some bizarre reason-Bloodsport, Hard Target, Timecop-to me, he could do no wrong. Which made this film a perfect storm of sorts. Being older and wiser, I can easily spot the many flaws in this film, but the over-the-top, cheesy dialogue, stunts, and story are what keep me loving this movie. I don't think it's good anymore, like when I did when I was eight, but now I realize it's in that rare so-terrible-it's-actually-highly-entertaining category. Just don't expect much and watch it more for laughs than a serious story (it's based on a video game for crying out loud) and you'll get a kick out of it.

I mean, how could you not love a movie that has one of the characters, watching a surveillance camera revealing a bomb-laden truck about to crash into the building he's in, exclaim, "Quick! Somebody change the channel!"

Ok, here we go. Grab a snack cause I'm gonna be bashing on this movie for awhile. Ok, where do I begin? The movie was horrible. That took off. Now. When this came out, I was a hardcore Street Fighter fan (hell, I still am. Fighting games are my life)and when I looked up online to see the reviews, I heard nothing good at all. So I decided not to waste my money on going to the theatres. So then when it comes out for video, I rent it. And I was sad to say, those reviews were right. Let's begin on what they did wrong, shall we?

1. Jean Claude Van Damm - I used to be a big fan on Van Damm in his very successful movies like Bloodsport and Timecop. But recently, his movies were bad. And then they give him the roll as the American soilder, Guile. Now, firstly, Guile is American. Van Damm is French. Smart move there guys. Secondly, Guile wasn't even the main character in the game. It was Ryu and Ken. Thirdly, Van Damm hardly even looked like Guile. Van Damm had a crew cut in the movie while the real Guile has something like a flat top hairdo. And lastly, Guile was a captain. Not a clonial.

2. Storyline - The storyline wasn't not even close to the game's storyline. Ryu and Ken in the game, are martial artist who grew up together living in the same dojo with their master, Gouken. They train every day. In the movie, they're weapon dealers and are brothers. Wow, quite different. And also, I recall Ryu being somewhat like a Bruce Lee wannabe. I mean, he'd always ended up needing to take off his shirt and fight with only his pants on and even getting cuts on his chest by Vega (Balrog in Japan). Sagat is supposed to be a Muay Thai fighter known all over the world who lost to Ryu and was scarred by his Shoryuken. In the movie, Sagat is Ryu and Ken's dealer who ends up trying to kill Ryu and Ken cause he got screwed over by them. Chun Li in the game is an Interpol officer searching for M. Bison (Vega in Japan)cause he killed her father. In the movie, she's a news reporter...wow...anyway, Honda and Balrog/M. Bison are her crew in the movie. In the game, Honda is a Japanese Sumo wrestler. In the movie, he's some fat hawaiian camera man. Balrog/ Bison, in the game, is one of M. Bison/Vega's body guards and is a BAD GUY. In the movie, however, he's apart of Chun Li's news crew and is a GOOD GUY. Cammy, in the game, was once being controlled by Bison/Vega but gained her memory and is now apart of Red Delta. In the movie, she's Guile's lover (which I remember in the game, Guile has a wife and a daughter)and is apart of the army with Guile. I'm probably boring all of you to death from the horrific things of this movie.

3. Horrible fights - Street Fighter is mainly about fighting. Well, I hardly found any fighting in this movie. And the fighting that was in this movie stunk. And the saddest part of all....no special moves.....That's what made Street Fighter unique. Specials. But, where's the hadoukens? Shoryukens? Tatsumaki Senpukyakus? Sonic Booms? Nope. Nadah. Nothing at all.

Bottom line: Movie is horrible. Don't even bother trying to see this movie.

The biggest distinction that "Street Fighter: the Movie" holds for me is that it's the first Van Damme picture I ever saw. On a global scale, it was the first video game-film adaptation to turn a buck, which should count for something despite the routine bashing it receives for how shoddily it portrayed the most popular fighting game of the time on the big screen. I was personally never a huge "Street Fighter" fan, but while I can certainly spot the plotline unfaithfulness, I can't help but notice just how fun the movie is. It's a poor adaptation and a questionable action movie, but nevertheless a decent teenaged adventure when taken at face value.

The story: when the mad warlord General M. Bison (Raul Julia, The Addams Family) is poised to overrun the earth in pursuit of his own personal empire, it will be up to a multi-faceted group of fighters - including Colonel William Guile (Van Damme, Timecop), reporter Chun-Li (Ming Na, Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within), and conmen Ryu Hoshi (Byron Mann, Crying Freeman) and Ken Masters (Damian Chapa) - to stop him.

This film is definitely over-cast, comparable to Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in terms of saturation. No less than fifteen characters from the original two games - more than half of their combined casts - are featured, resulting in a stifling deficit of character development, since next to none of them have the appropriate amount of screentime for it. The actual casting choices of these characters can also be taken to task, but I'm pleased that - through the admirably accurate costumes and cosmetics - most of the performers at least *look* like their animated counterparts (in some cases, like Robert "Blanka" Mammone, you almost wish they didn't). Personalities and backgrounds have been addled with as expected to accommodate the tournament-free premise, but none of them bother me as much as the case of M. Bison: he's the single goofiest part of this whole immature adventure, practically a forerunner to Dr. Evil, having been written so comically that it's impossible to consider him threatening even when he's snapping guys' necks or shooting electricity from his fists.

The movie never has a problem with pacing, rolling along fittingly enough at a video game's pace and always presenting you with some silly or bombastic event to watch; it's never boring. Sadly, there's not nearly enough fighting going on, and when it does happen it's not that great. It seems amazing that, considering what it's based on, the movie only has a 'round half-dozen fights, depending on your definition of a fight (i.e. I don't consider it a fight when Guile and his team ambush some soldiers and Kylie Minogue does a cool but unnecessary pro wrestling move), and even more amazing how very bland most of them are with the acclaimed Benny Urquidez (Spider-Man) supplying fight choreography. Some of the performers just aren't good, and some of them surprisingly so (is this the same Damian Chapa who rocked the house with Michael Worth in U.S. Seals 2? I hope not!), but other times they just feel stifled. For example, the showdown between Ryu and Vega (Jay Tavare, Pathfinder) was my favorite of the movie, and really felt like it could've gone somewhere were it not for the cramped locker room they were in.

Apparently, the critical lashing "Street Fighter" received moved Van Damme to choose his future roles more carefully, so in a pinch, I'll accredit every good movie he did subsequently to this minor disappointment. Seeing as this particular franchise hasn't done too well in live-action film regardless of who's involved, I can't be too hard on this first attempt and will continue to regard it neutrally and enjoy it by accident every few years. Fans of the games who somehow have yet to see the film should avoid it unless they're intentionally looking for something to heckle.

Street Fighter is just another video-game to movie translation that gives any true Street Fighter fan great disappointment. This movie had GREAT potential. WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST MAKE THIS MOVIE THE SAME AS THE GAME!!!!! It would have been AWSOME!!! I can write a whole book on the the mistakes they made with this trash but I'm only going to name a few. For one thing, the social status on nearly all of the fighters from the game has been changed. Ryu, for example, is supposed to be the main character but instead he and Ken seem like the only thing their good for is getting into trouble. Also, many of the fighters do not look like their video-game counterparts. I probably wasn't paying attention that much but I didn't even know who Dee Jay was until around 30 minutes till the end of the movie. Then, to play as M. Bison, they chose Raul Julia who is way to skinny and is not a matial artist as far as I know. I personally would have chosen Arnold Schwartzenegger, who may not be a martial artist but is much more familiar to te action genre, over Raul Julia. The most interesting part is the fights between Ryu & Ken and Sagat & Vega and even that was pretty stupid because Sagat and Ryu are supposed to be mortal enemies but their was no indication that Ryu had even put that scar on Sagat's chest which, according to the video-game, was supposed to have happened. I want to write WAY more than 1000 words but, according to the rules, I can't. In conclusion this movie wouldn't be that bad if the video-game never existed(thank God it does excist) and if the title wasn't called "Street Fighter" because it doesn't have enough martial arts in it to be called that. I would have rated this movie 4 stars.

When I first saw the previews for this movie a while back I thought it might be good. Than I rented it and I was hoping to be right. I was wrong. DEAD WRONG!!! This movie literally ... Anyone who's given this movie 5 stars or even 4 stars are probably smoking the same stuff that the writers for this garbage were smoking. As pretty much everyone who is a hardcore fan of the video game know that this story revolves around the heros Ryu & Ken, not Guile. Van Damme hasnt done any good movies since "Timecop". It's a shame the late Raul Julia had to waste his talent on this movie. He must be rolling over in his grave. It was also nice to see the writers combine 2 characters into 1 (We get the delightful combination of "Charlie Nash" & Jimmy"Blanka" into "Charles Blanka", nice move guys. Blanka looked more like a reject from the "Incredible Hulk" series. The fight scenes were some of the lamest I've ever seen and the dialogue was even worst. If you wanna a "true" Street Fighter" movie just watch "Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie" and also check out "Street Fighter IIV" series. Avoid this movie at all cost.

Okay so many of you probably have never seen this series. The quality of the DVD is great. But of course, this is the series that was on USA Networks on cable. Do not get this series mixed up with the Japanese version of Street Fighter.

There are major differences. The first one is storyline is based on the horrid Van Damn movie of Street Fighter. Which means that the Street Fighters are police under cover to save the universe. Second difference is Guile is the main character not Ryu!

I would consider this for my collection regardless. ADV Films bought the rights to this movie attempting to capture the Robotech, Transformers generation. They did a great job of marketing it to them. I ended up buying this DVD. It's not the best anime nor is it even Japanese, but I had to get it since I watched it growing up as a kid.

15 episodes for $...? I figured its cheap enough to watch.

Over a third of the reviewers gave this film the lowest possible rating and more than half gave it the lowest two ratings. While I prefer to be kind, I think that the film deserves the lowest rating. The film is silly without being funny. The actors act as if they were characters in a children's comic book. They are heavy-handed and dress in foolish costumes. It is clear that the story and the acting is not meant to be taken seriously. The dialogue is ridiculous. Near the end of the film one of the bad guys tells his comrade that their leader is a bad guy. He says that he only worked for him because he was paid. The other reacts: You mean the general is a bad guy? You mean you were paid? This dialogue persuades him to change sides.

It was only a matter or time before the phenomenal video game smash hit was turned into a video game, and when word was out there was to be a live action movie, i don't think anyone really knew what to expect. And once it was out, it made it's money, which was guaranteed, but left a lot of the fans of the game in disappointment at how there favorite video game characters had been portrayed.

To those who never played the game, it was a JCVD movie where he led the U.N against the dictatorship of General Bison with 100 other side characters involved. But to those who just dismiss the movie and give it 2 to 4 word reviews, you really need to stand back and look at just how many characters from the game are portrayed into this film. What was it meant to be? 80 mins of nonstop fighting with special effects coming out of there hands?

I have to say, for the task that was at hand and the plot of the movie, it's not that bad of a job when asking someone to involve so many characters from a video game and incorporate them into a full length motion picture. I mean, this movie was based on Super Street Fighter 2 and that game had about 16 characters in it. It really came down to the casting of certain characters and costumes that really held this movie back.

Jean Claude Van Dame - as Cornell William F Guile. I think half the audience liked the idea he played Guile, and the other half would ask why the muscles from Brussels is playing an American military Cornell? As like any JCVD movies, he has his moments of coolness & his moments of complete lameness.

Raul Julia as M. Bison i thought was great casting. Raul really researched dictators like Hitler and Mussolini for this role, and created exactly who Bison was expected to be. I'm not just praising him cause he died just after this movie, no, he is one of the much better actors in this movie that when I think if someone else could have been cast who would be better in this role, then Raul is the one I would say is the #1 choice.

Ming-Na as Chun Li I think did a terrible job. It's not so much she didn't look the part, but I think they could have found someone who looked a better Chun-Li, but also her acting from sarcasm to doing her own lame stunt's that look stupid in the movie (hence that roll she did to put a tracking device on the truck) really make you wonder how she got this role in the first place. She plays the role too goofy in most parts, then when she is supposed to be mean, you just don't buy it.

Wes Studi I think played a great Sagat. He looked the part, and played it straight. Even tho he was not as tall as Sagat should be, it would be very hard to track down a 7'4 kickboxer to play the role.

Jay Tavare I suppose played a decent Vega. Surely there is someone out there that could have done a much better job, but this guy played the character decently and no real complaint about his performance in the movie.

Kylie Minogue playing Cammy was the worst choice of the entire movie. She completely killed the character by having no knowledge what-so-ever of who the heck she was supposed to be portraying. And her accent in the film is just enough to make cringe.

Byron Mann as Ryu was not quite the right choice, tho he could have been better if he was a little darker and not working with Damian Chapa who really did not suit the role of Ken Masters at all. The two of them where not what you expected out of so many SF2 fans favorite characters. Both of them should have been played by people a bit thicker and didn't look like the comic relief from a stoner movie.

Roshan Seth I suppose played Dahlsim as best he could for the way he is written into this movie. Many where disappointed he was not a Yoga master made of rubber shooting flames out his rear end, but for what his role was here, I suppose he did a decent enough job.

Grand L. Bush looked the part of Balrog in some parts of the movie, but he did not seem he was the right choice for the character. Balrog should've been much meaner and bulked up. This guy was far from the right choice.

Peter Navy Tuiasosopo as E.Honda I will say was a good choice to play the role. Even tho he was Hawaiin in the movie, and the video game he is Japanese, not to forget in real life Peter is Samoan, there probably wouldn't have been a lot of Japanese men of this size that could make this character work on screen.

Andrew Bryniarski as Zangief was really horrible choice. It wouldn't have been that hard to find an actual wrestler who stands at about 7 foot in height who looked more the role then this guy does. This guy looks like he is wearing a bad fake beard and wig, and is trying to play the character just as goofy as can be. it really ruins scenes with guys like Raul Julia who give a great performance, and then this guy screws it up with really bad acting.

Gregg Rainwater as T.Hawk, why did they even bother? I'm not even going to go on about this one.

Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Dee Jay was pretty bad as well, the character was written in badly, so i guess it wouldn't matter who played this role.

Robert Mammone as Charlie (Blanka) again, another one they should have had a beefed up guy play the role of and make him look somewhat credible then just completely stupid.

Kenya Sawada as Captain Sawada - what a memorable character this one was - not. This was supposed to be the introduction of a new character for the video games Capcom was planning to release in an upcoming SF game, but after the fact no one took any notice of him in this movie, I guess the idea was canned.

So with very few right choices for the roles of the SF characters, you can see why the movie is not praised by fans of SF2 from being the wrong choice of characters. If it had a balance of the right looks for the role, and everyone on the same level from who is going to play the role seriously, and who is going to portray it as a loony tune, then the results may have varied more in the thumbs up favor.


BONUS FEATURES
- Boring commentary from the director giving you more information about his background and life then anything to do with the movie.
- Trailers to SF4 (big deal)
- 2 Deleted Scenes that are worthy of looking at.
- The trailer (whoopie)

Still, with the negative things I have said about this film, and the things I would have changed, much like Masters Of The Universe, there is just something about the film that makes you want to see it at least once every year or two. It's far from the worst film of all time.

I have to say in regards to other views that this movie is good for what you pay for. Ever since i was a child i watched this movie and loved it. It is one of the best street fighter movies around. Van Dman always does a good job, and there is good action and the story is pretty good as well.

If you like action and Van Damn, i reccommend this.

The humiliating label of "worst movie ever" gets thrown around a lot, but Street Fighter truly deserves to be included in the list of worst movies ever. It's so bad, it's its own unique brand of bad. I mean, not only is it inept and stupid, it's just plain strange. From beginning to end, everything about this movie is strange, stupid and inept. Bewilderingly strange and bewilderingly stupid. A "what were they thinking?" curiousness pervades this whole movie. It's a movie that can only be tolerated in small doses it's so bad. I've never watched this movie once straight through from beginning to end. I think if I did I would end up looking like Blanka. Someone please put this film out of its misery and quite re-releasing it on DVD.