Review of Street Fighter (1993) by Adam F — 17 Mar 2014

If you're a fan of the video game or you saw "Street Fighter" as a kid, you'll have fun with the 1994 movie adaptation but you can't deny the fact that this is an action movie that's loaded with problems. What works is the characters; although most of the acting is way over-the-top is just plain bad (we'll get back to that in a bit) the movie is filled with colourful heroes and villains that are all distinct from each other. The movie actually does a pretty good job taking the characters from the video game and bringing them to life and it includes a lot of them so your favourite guy or gal probably at least makes a cameo appearance in the film. Because the characters are so distinct you'll likely latch onto one character and thoroughly enjoy yourself while he or she is on the screen. What the characters are given to do... well sometimes it's just laughably bad. Our hero is bland and Jean Claude Van Dame delivers a really wooden performance. It's also pretty hilarious to see a character that's clearly supposed to be an American (you can tell because he has a flag tattooed on his biceps and because he doesn't negotiate with terrorists!) played by a man with a pretty thick French accent. As for the antagonist, well Raul delivers a performance that is so ridiculously over-the-top it's hard to tell if it was done on purpose or not. On the one hand, it could be done on purpose because we are talking about a man who aims to take over the world, wants to build cities shaped like skulls and wants to create an army of green, genetically enhanced supermen but on the other, none of the other characters in the film are being as goofy as M. Bison so it feels like it's unintentionally hilarious most of the time. Most of the other actors are ok given their limited screen time but there are plenty of characters that are so hammy you'll be slapping your forehead whenever they appear on-screen.

As an action film, "Street Fighter" has a few good action sequences but there's not a lot of good hand-to-hand combat and a lot of the film is spent building up all of the characters and the villains' evil plot. Each character is given their arch and they do develop but the action sequences never really put them in that much peril so there's no real tension during the movie. There are several plot holes or scenes where characters act out of character solely to get the story from point A to point B. There's a scene for example where a character is hiding in a room, waiting for someone to come and infiltrate the base he's in. Sure, his plan to surprise the intruder works, but how long was the guy just lying there waiting for someone to try and break in? How does our main character manage to recognize his old friend, even though he's grown by at least half his normal size, his hair has turned orange, his skin green, his speech patterns reduced to a couple of grunts and his face has been completely altered? Why do the shock troops of M. Bison manage to hit faceless army guys but can never shoot straight when they are facing an unarmed protagonist?

For all of its flaws, the movie is thoroughly entertaining. M. Bison and his henchman Zangiff really stand out as memorable villains that are tons of fun to follow and you'll have a great time tearing the movie apart while watching it with your friends. So many parts of the movie don't work that it creates a perfect balance of campy action. There are a lot of really good, really memorable scenes and some unforgettable dialogue you have to hear to believe. "Street Fighter" might not be good but if you know what you're getting into ahead of time, it's a lot of fun. As a "So Bad it's Good" movie, it's exactly what you want to see but as a serious action film, it's laughable so my real rating comes in at a 2 / 5, while the camp value ranks in at a perfect 5 /5. (On Dvd, April 26, 2013).