Street Fighter 1994 Film Review

Hey, this is Steve Blum, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to episode 95 of the Cinema Geeks. I am one of

your Cinema Geeks, Optimus Solo. Joining me for

episode 95 is movie revolved Dan. Hello, sir.

Hey, how's it going? Not too bad. And hard candy

Mandy, the one and only. Hello. Hello, one and

only. I guess. And Fridley sent hello, sir. Hi.

We're all here. So we're bringing you episode

95, which is allowing us to take another trip

into our video game series of movie reviews and

if you have not been keeping up with that so

far we have done an episode on Super Mario Brothers

the film as well as Double Dragon and now we're

moving on to our third of our video game series

films which is of course Street Fighter, the

1994 live action film. For those of you that

aren't familiar with that title, it might be

a good idea to go watch it first and then come

back and listen to the rest of the podcast. But

it came out in 1994, directed by Stephen DeSouza,

starring Jean -Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia.

and a few others like Kylie Minogue, etc, etc.

Obviously this is based on the Street Fighter

game franchise, specifically it says that it's

based on the second installment of that franchise,

but before we get into the actual film and some

details about that, what we usually like to do

is start off by giving a real quick background

on our history with whatever video game franchise

it is that the film is based off of. So Dan...

How knowledgeable are you in the Street Fighter

world and did you ever play Street Fighter growing

up? I did play Street Fighter 2 a great deal

growing up. I had my classic Sega Genesis and

we played this a lot. I don't know how knowledgeable

I am of the stories. Going back and some of this

was ringing a lot of bells of different characters

and I forgot a lot of it, but similar to Double

Dragon I think there was a cartoon. I didn't

watch it as much. as I watched the Double Dragon

one, but I do remember one existing, if I'm not

mistaken. Yeah. And I played a lot of the sequels,

too, though I feel like those haven't stuck with

me nearly as much, and I think there's like a

thousand of them, so it's hard to keep them on

track. But yeah, I played it a lot. You know,

the Street Fighter II, I think that came out

right when I was getting into video games hardcore

as a kid. So, yeah, it was, you know, it was

one of probably the games I played the most of

back in the day. Nice nice as for myself. I did

play some Street Fighter growing up I don't remember

which version of it was I'm assuming it was Street

Fighter 2 since that was the one that obviously

became the Super popular one more so than the

original one, but I growing up I was never big

on the fighting games But if I was playing one

it actually was usually Mortal Kombat So I was

more of a Mortal Kombat kid than a Street Fighter

kid but neither one was one that I played like

a ton of. But I played it enough to know the

characters so that when we were watching the

film, et cetera, that certain characters were

familiar to me. I knew the names, et cetera.

I knew what they were supposed to look like from

the game. So somewhat at least aware of the world,

but I wouldn't say I'm like super knowledgeable

of it. Amanda, how much Street Fighter did you

play as a kid? I actually played quite a bit

of Street Fighter, but I was still super young

when this came out. So this was more of being

at my older cousin's house all the time and they

had it and then I would just kind of do like

the one move over and over again and then they

get really mad when I beat them. Stop punching

me in the face! I would always just deal with

the stretchy arms because I would just like go

as far as possible. But I mean, I even own some

now, like some of the older ones for like Xbox

and stuff, so I love the franchise. I've always

had fun with fighting games. It's kind of my

thing. It's my go -to for video games, so I've

always enjoyed it. And I've seen this movie a

couple times. I own then The Legend of Chun -Li,

the newer Street Fighter movie. I dig the franchise,

a lot of fun. I will play this over and over

again. And I don't know which one I like better,

Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. I think I have

a special place for both of them at heart. So

that's why they match up for the two. Matt, what

about you? I think I'm with Kevin and having

played a lot more Mortal Kombat than Street Fighter.

I know I owned Mortal Kombat games and I don't

think I owned any Street Fighter games when I

was young. But I do remember renting them from

movie rental places back in the day. and I remember

one time declaring that I'd beaten Street Fighter

the first day I'd rented it, but I probably did

like a six -man tournament and won that and was,

you know, faced and didn't realize there's a

difference. So, you know, I've got a good amount

of time with it. Okay. Well, to give everybody

a little bit more background information on the

actual film, I don't remember if I did this for

Double Dragon. I know I did it with Super Mario

Bros., but looking at the budget and the box

office numbers real quick to kind of set the

stage, As a film, the budget on this film was

35 million, excuse me, 35 million dollar budget

and the domestic gross for it was actually just

under that at 33 million. So budget of 35, domestic

gross of 33. Obviously if you take international

dollars and add all that and it did make a profit,

but domestically just under its budget. Give

you a little bit of information too as far as

where it stacks up with the rest of the video

game films. Like we had mentioned with Super

Mario Brothers, and if I didn't mention it, I'll

do it now for Double Dragon Super Mario Brothers

is listed as the 21st Highest grossing video

game film and with 20 million and Double Dragon

was listed as the 32nd Actually out of all the

video game films We're gonna talk about Double

Dragon is the second worst as far as the box

office goes with only making two million dollars

in the domestic box office. Street Fighter, obviously,

is better than those two. It's ranking in at

number 17. So 33 million is good enough for 17th

place on the video game echelon, which is not

something to brag about, obviously, Dan. No,

well, it's surprising. $2 million for Double

Dragon. That just feels bad. I feel like just

people that were in it paid to see it, and that's

about it. Yeah, that's not good. And I also found

one other ranking that it ranks really high on.

Apparently, Street Fighter, they have a chart

on box office mojo for the biggest ever Friday

to Saturday drops during a wide release opening

weekend. They have charts for everything. Street

Fighter ranks number 3 all time, biggest Friday

to Saturday drops during opening weekend. So

it dropped 55 % from Friday to Saturday. The

only two films that have been worse than that,

surprisingly actually, the number two ranked

is Magic Mike XXL, which dropped 60 % from Friday

to Saturday. And then the number one spot goes

to The Ringer, which dropped 72%. So Street Fighter,

number three all time, biggest drop from Friday

to Saturday. It's a random grouping of movies

and a random stat, so there you go. Yeah, I just

found it weird because they have all these different

rankings and usually, you know, nothing's in

the top. When we're talking about video game

films, nothing's gonna be in the top 10 of anything.

And I was like, what is this ranking number three

at? I can't believe that. And then just to real

quick go over the Rotten Tomatoes numbers, we

started with Super Mario Brothers, which was

a 15 % on Rotten Tomatoes. Double Dragon dropped

us down to 8%. Street Fighter is going to go

in between at 12 percent. So, Dan, are you looking

forward to talking about this one? Oh, yeah,

of course. Yeah. After Double Dragon, I'm looking

it's nowhere but up, I would assume. All right.

So how we've done this in the past is we've quickly

looked at how the film translates the video game

and then how the film works on its own outside

of whether or not it's a good representation

of the game. Let's start with Amanda this time.

With Street Fighter, how well do you think the

film illustrates what you remember from the game

and playing the game? Man, that's a hard one.

I don't think that there was enough street fighting.

I don't think there was anything as big of a

hole as like no jumping in Mario Brothers. I

mean, there was still some fighting and some

sweet moves going on in here. But I would have

liked a little bit more actual punching in the

face and stuff. There was some pretty cool scenes,

but I would have liked more match -ups. As far

as character versus character, I thought that

would have been a little cooler. I think that

some of the characters looked pretty spot -on,

and I think that their names all matched, I'll

say that. I think that... As far as story goes,

I don't really know what the story is in Street

Fighter. So to have a movie based on it and to

try to match up whether it lived up to that story

or not, I'm not the one to ask on that one. Well,

Matt, you usually are our story guy and our game

manual guru. Now I know, like you said, off air

that there's about 3 ,000 versions of these games

available. Were you able to come up with any

consensus as to what the actual story of the

Street Fighter world is based on when it comes

to video games? So, for Street Fighter II Turbo

Hyper Fighting from 1993, which is the nearest

to the movie to come out, right? All I've got

is this blurb in the manual that says, Each fighter

has mastered different skills and special moves,

but it'll take more than brute strength to defeat

the others and earn the title of Grandmaster.

So it's supposed to be a massive brawl tournament.

So nothing about an all -out war. There's definitely

no world domination plot. But again, if all it

was was just a 12 -man bracket system, it'd be

a pretty boring movie. So how well do you feel

like they did as far as the characters go in

representing them on the screen? I mean, Amanda

mentioned they got the names right. Do you feel

like they got the looks of them right and the

attitude or persona that the characters are seen

to embody in the game? Honestly, they did a really

good job with it. I listened to, I don't know

if anyone out there knows, the movie boys, Jim

Sterling and Conrad Zimmerman. They do a podcast

every other week that's just this. They just

do a random video game movie and talk about it.

And Street Fighter's the only one they've done

that we've done, somehow, because we're doing

from the beginning and they're doing it random

smattering. Gotcha. And they talked about how

it seems almost like they had the booklet, they

got everyone's name and everyone's look, and

they shot the final image of the movie where

everyone's in their costumes all posing. and

then worked back from there. Where it's like,

okay, we need to explain how they all got into

their various costumes and how they all got in

the same area together, and you know, and that's

what they did. It almost feels like that, just

kind of how the movie rolls. But honestly, if

you look at the manual, it's almost less multi

-cultural. The movie is almost less multi -cultural

than the game, which I know is a normal common

thing, but that movie is very diverse with, you

know... This guy's American, this guy's Japanese,

this guy's Chinese, this guy's Russian. Like,

E. Honda's supposed to be Japanese, but they

made him Hawaiian. And, uh, Blanca's supposed

to be Brazilian, and he's kinda white. But other

than that, they pretty much got it right. Like,

Zangief being Russian, Dhalsim being Indian.

They did a really good job, actually, uh, setting

down the characters. Ryu! They got his name wrong.

They called him Ryu the whole movie, which is

a little weird. Well, some people did. Oh, is

that? I always call him Ryu. Some people call

him Ryu and some people call him Ryu and it sent

me on a scavenger hunt through the internet to

try to find out what I was supposed to call this

guy because I'm like, I've heard two different

pronunciations in the same movie and that usually

bugs me. And it seemed like even the internet

couldn't decide what his name, but most of them

were like you said, Matt, with the Ryu. being

the right name, which I've always called him

Ryu, so I'm wrong too. I even watched this more

recent movie. It's like this Ken and Ryu backstory

live -action film. That was awful, by the way.

It was so awful. But I sat through the whole

thing. I don't know how. If anybody wants to

check that out, we'll have to get to what the

title of that was, because that was something

to behold. I'm sorry, Matt, continue though with

what you were saying. But... I mean, they had

to add an overarching story so it wasn't just

street fighting. I do wish there was more street

fighting and less guns, just because there's

very little guns. Like, maybe, you know, at the

beginning, have Guile get into a fight with another

guy. Like, maybe have him fight Blanca at the

beginning on a base so that we get the feeling.

And then, like, when Guile wins, helps Blanca

up. We see that they're, you know, connecting,

they're friends, they're buddies, but they also

really like to fight. Like, just something to

get a little more fighting and also, I don't

know, to give that feel of they're friends. Right.

They said they're like, oh, we were friends back

on this army base before. Yeah. You better connect,

but you don't know that. Yeah, they do a lot

of telling and not a lot of showing. But, again,

they had to add a story, they had to have their

certain amounts of action beats and comedy beats

and whatnot. And so, like, it's, you know, it's

not a perfect translation, but it's probably

the best. games and movie translation we've had,

and it probably will be the top three when we're

done, which is sad. Don't depress me like that.

We had Van Damme. He couldn't have like kicked

some more people in the face. That was mine.

You know, we got something called Street Fighter.

We have Jean Claude Van Damme in it. And I swear,

like I wrote down three different times in my

When are they going to actually have any type

of street fighting going on in this? film, because

I agree with you guys, there needed to be more

street fighting. Dan, we haven't let you chime

in yet, but what is your take on how well it

represents the game that you remember playing

as a child? It's weird, in some ways it represents

in a lot of ways, it's like superficial representation

in a way, like, yeah, they got some of the looks

down, like the costumes, certain occasions, the

moves, like even some of the backgrounds, I noticed

that they try to model the mattress after the

game. You know the story itself like matt was

mentioning you're gonna have to figure something

out Unless you did like blood sport. I mean you

do have jungle god bandam So maybe you could

just recycle that just with street fighter characters

But it does feel like a script that they had

and they're like, I had no idea what to do with

this You know what? Let's just make some of these

street fighter characters and call it a day and

somehow like get it figured out, but You know

they they had you know, they had some of the

moves that they would do they would uh a lot

of the look So, I mean, I do feel like they put

an effort out there for sure, but at times it

felt shoot -hoarded in, of course. So, like Matt

mentioned, I feel like, you know, it's probably

the best representation. Characters look like

the way they should. They somewhat acted like

the way you expect them to act. There wasn't

anything completely blatant like we've had in

Double Dragon and Super Mario, where it's like,

how did you get that wrong? There was nothing

that was just like so completely iconic about

the game, the video game that you just were watching

the film and saying, well these guys are supposed

to be twin brothers like in Double Dragon, or

you know some of the things that we mentioned

in Super Mario Bros. I didn't feel like I had

any moments like that. I don't know if you guys

had anything that you just felt like, wait they

did this completely wrong. Just the fact that

the one guy in Street Fighter that's American

with an American tattoo, they got Jean -Claude

Van Damme to play him. Also Chun -Li's outfit.

I think they had like her secondary outfit or

something on. They did mention, I was reading

some trivia, they did mention that a couple of

them don't have, like not all the outfits for

all the characters are from, are like the outfits

from one single game. Like most of them are from

Street Fighter II, but then a couple of the costumes

are like variations that you see in other games

or something like that. So it seemed like there

was a little variation when it came to the outfits.

In the manual for Street Fighter II Turbo. It

actually shows her in the red costume as the

main and the blue costume as a secondary, but

iconically she is in the blue costume from then

on, I believe. Gotcha. Getting into the, or at

first I wanted to ask you Amanda, too, because

they both said that this was probably the best

video game representation we've had so far. Do

you agree that this one's done better than the

other two as far as representing the game? Yeah,

I would say. I think that it... holds more true

to the original content than what we've seen

so far. Alright, so I think we're all in consensus

so far that so far this is the best one as far

as a video game representation, but that does

not necessarily say anything about the film itself.

Going into a little bit of background information

before we get everybody's opinion on how the

film holds up... Some interesting tidbits here.

I talked about how the budget was 35 million

dollars I don't know if you guys saw this in

any of your research or not, but apparently most

of that is spent immediately by the first couple

people that are cast in the film because Jean

-Claude Van Damme I believe got 8 million of

that 35 million So also reading that apparently

the director actually For went or for gone had

his salary Not paid to him so he could pay part

of the cast so the director apparently did not

make any Money on this whatsoever. He had to

supply it so they could have the rest of the

cast me Be paid and obviously a Van Damme was

the first person cast and all Julia as bison

was the second There's also another note about

the casting that apparently There was a demand

that they needed an Australian in the cast. And

by the time this demand came out from the Australian

Actors Guild, they had already cast everybody

except for Cami. So... That's why we got Kylie

Minogue? So he had one person left to cast and

he was told that he had to have an Australian

in the cast and that is why Kylie Minogue lands

the part who apparently... He saw in some type

of world's most beautiful people magazine or

something like that. Dude, she was the locomotion

chick. And also she did have some sweet moves,

akin to Black Widow. Old school, I'm going to

put my legs around your neck and flip you around

moves. It was really legit. Well getting into

that a little bit before everybody gets their

thoughts, going into the physical training, they

actually hired a world karate champion. to train

all these guys and he was supposed to have all

this time to get everybody trained on the moves

and this that and the other but apparently there

was a whole bunch of complications this is for

those that don't know this is Raul of Julia's

final film role and he was suffering from cancer

at the time and they had to completely reschedule

and flip around the order that they were going

to do things because of the bad condition that

he was in and it ended up where most of the cast

got less than days and sometimes less than hours

of training before the scenes were shot. So at

times this karate champion only had like one

or two hours to work with one of the cast members

before a specific scene is actually shot. It

seems like something that was pretty pivotal

that they should have put more time in everything.

Well, there was a lot of... restraints on them

because of Capcom who obviously was helping to

finance the film and they did a lot of things

as far as when the film had to be done this that

and the other so they were on a pretty tight

schedule and according to the director D'Souza

he wanted this film to be a cross between Star

Wars, James Bond and an actual war film and he

succeeded also the MPAA apparently originally

gave the first submitted cut of this film an

R rating which was apparently unacceptably high

for Capcom so they had to completely cut all

kinds of different things and they eventually

got it down to a G rating and then it was bumped

up to PG -13 because of an added curse word or

some type of language that was thrown in. I'm

not sure, it just says an expletive that was

added in post -production to get them from a

G back up to a PG -13, which is what they were

shooting for. So here's the thing, they wanted

a PG -13 film, they shot a film that got classified

as an R, they were so desperate to get it back

to PG -13 that they went all the way and cut

enough stuff to get it down to a G rating, and

then had to add curse words to get it back to

PG -13. That's just ridiculous. So Dan, we'll

start with you when it comes to the actual film

and how his dance up or holds up as a film regardless

of how well it represents the video game What

are the positives and negatives about Street

Fighter? I think Street Fighter is best enjoyed

if you view it as a comedy Like I think it ultimately

is trying to be a comedy because there are a

lot of comedic beats like Like M Bison, he has

a lot of lines that it seems just to be purposely

funny. He's being super hammy. Like the food

court line is rather humorous and there's like

Zangief every time he talks. There's a lot of

things in there where I'm like, it feels like

it's more than just comedic bits. Like it's trying

to be funny more than it is. The plot itself

makes no sense at all. If there's, it's just

ludicrous. What's there? Just things to go and

I'm like, all right, whatever. Some of the acting

is... You know, you have Jean -Claude Van Damme,

so his rousing speech aside, you know, so...

I have a note on here. It says, all I wrote down

was, never good to give Van Damme this many speeches.

It is not an orator. Like, stop it. We can all

go home. Well, I'm not going home. I'm gonna

get on my boat, and I'm going upriver. And I'm

going to kick that son -of -a -bitch bison's

ass so hard that the next bison wannabe is gonna

feel it. Now, who wants to go home? And who wants

to go with me? Who wants to come with me? I don't

want to go with you, John Glenn's fandom. The

war is cancelled. Go home. The war is back on.

Like, what is going on here? So, I thought, you

know, it's like a... This is, if you notice,

one of the worst movies ever, and I don't know

if it's just because we watched Double Dragon

and Super Mario, it's that it's just better by

comparison, but I thought, maybe I felt there

was more effort put behind this, and maybe it

was just like, I did find M. Bison intriguing

and fun, I thought it was great, he had some

awesome lines, like for me it was the Tuesday

line, that was fun. I'm sorry. I don't remember

any of it. You don't remember? For you The day

bison graced your village was the most important

day of your life But for me It was Tuesday. I

know what it means is a good movie But I think

it's there's enough there that I found it somewhat

enjoyable in comparison like I said Some of the

language like you're pointing out was just I

didn't I was not prepared for some of the lines

that are dished out in this film there was the

other one where is What was he he said have you

lost your mind and I think John's a lot of in

them said no you've lost your balls And then

there was a very awkward line from I believe

it was Honda who says give me a hand and then

They say we've only been in jail a few hours?

Yeah, that, that - No, he's like, wait a few

months. He is a total prison jerk -off. I know,

but that was like - But it was pretty quick.

It was so awkward, that was just like - There's

also a line, there's something saying, like,

you have to be crazy to try to go after Ann Bison

and Jean -Claude Van Damme's like, well, he's

driving me nuts. So I'm like, that's - Aw, Jesus.

I must've missed that one. But yeah, some of

the lines, like you said, were the Tuesday line,

et cetera. I was just not prepared for the language

coming out of everybody, not that it's like -

Appalling or anything like that. I just wasn't

prepared because it was just a fun Street Fighter

film. It killed John -Claude -Bay -Dan Paulson

with a dickhead and flips everybody off. Amanda,

how do you feel it worked as a movie or what

were its strengths and weaknesses? Oh man, its

strengths. It was put out in the 90s. I don't

think that it would have done very well in times

like now. I think that it was really cartoonish

and It definitely played up on the humor, but

I like that. I think that's the only way that

we would have been able to enjoy it. And I mean,

it's Street Fighter. How serious can you really

go in a plot with the Street Fighter? There's

not much there to dig into. And I think that

the characters being what they were really helped

push it along and up the enjoyment factor for

me. I've watched this a few times. I remember

everything in the movie, so it's not like I was...

I'm not surprised by anything in this rewatch,

but I'll definitely visit again. We'll see that.

Alright. Matt, what do you think? How did it

hold up as a film, you know, whatever angle you

want to go, from the acting, from the writing,

from the story, or whatever? So, when I listened

to the spin -off Doctor's version of this about

a month ago, that's the movie boys, they kept

saying throughout, because this is a comedy like

Rush Hour. And I thought that that was like a

stab, like, like there's a funny moment or two

and they're like, we're just gonna keep pointing

out that there was comedy in this movie, it's

about street fighting. So I went in knowing that

there was going to be some level of comedy somewhere,

but you know, about 20 minutes in, it's very

obvious that they're going campy, and they go

hardcore campy. Like, this movie is right up

there with the 1960s Batman movie. Like, it's

just comedy for comedy's sake at many moments.

but there are still some good lines like was

mentioned that was just Tuesday for me like that

line is amazing it's been quoted a million times

since I don't know like it didn't bother me that

it was comedy and maybe because I had a little

bit of an inkling going in that might have not

bothered me but I always love camp like camp

is a thing that we don't get enough of anymore

we just get really like straight referential

parody and things like that we don't get fun

campy movies and this is one of those and it

was great even though, I don't know, it allowed

it to do things that it wouldn't be able to do

if it did a straight action movie. Were you surprised

at the number of words that they were able to

create out of the word Bison? What, like Bisonopolis

and Bison Dollars? I'm a little bothered that

Bisonopolis, which I'm guessing is supposed to

be the capital of the nation, is really just

a building with a food court. But other than

that, I didn't really... I love the Bison Dollars.

I'd love to have one. A bison grenade, bison

dollars. Oh, bison grenade, I don't remember

that one. Oh, bison troopers were one? No, it

was not. The PA had an announcement, I guess,

like a public service announcement for the citizens,

and one of the things was, what to do if a bison

grenade is thrown at you? What? No, it was the

radio guy, right? Because he was making fun of

him. If a bison trooper throws a bison grenade,

pick it up and pull out the pit and throw it

back. That was the line. Dude, that movie was

great. You know, that guy who's doing that was

the real life guy who was from Good Morning Vietnam?

Like that was actually the dude who was based

upon in that film, yeah. The guy doing all the

PA announcements. That was hilarious, because

it opens up with that Good Morning Chattaloo

or whatever. Chattaloo. That's the name of the

country, right? Yeah, that's the name of the

place. Welcome Warlords of Shadowloo. According

to Street Fighter II Turbo's manual, N. Bison

is the leader of the international criminal organization,

Shadowloo. So they changed it from a criminal

organization to a country. Interesting. But still

managed to keep the name of the original thing.

Yeah, that doesn't... And they said that most

of it's based off of, I guess, Bangkok. But yeah,

it's supposed to be the fictitious Shadowloo

city in the film. So, that's interesting. A couple

of notes that I had as far as some things I wanted

to point out. I mean, it is camp like you're

saying, Matt, and you gotta go in expecting what

you get, in a way, and, you know, Street Fighter

camp, humor, et cetera, and I'm glad that they

didn't try to take themselves, I guess, too serious.

I agree with Dan, though, the writing and the

story, it just seems like it's all over the place.

Like, I don't know if 17 different people wrote,

like, 10 minutes each. And then it just got thrown

together, or how that worked, but there's definitely

a lot of moments that kinda had you scratching

your head when it came to putting the story together.

I wasn't sure on a couple things, like, how does...

How does Jean -Claude Van Damme recognize Charlie

after he's been completely transformed? Like,

I don't understand how there was enough to see

that would somehow tip you off that that was

somebody that he knew. Well, he - The eyes are

the windows to the soul. Oh, and we are talking

about Sean Cloud Van Dam. Also, why did he call

out Charlie and get him in trouble to begin with?

A lot of things just didn't make sense. At one

point, they're crawling around in the exhaust

ventilation, whatever you want to call it, piping

and whatnot. And they're like, why did he pick

at that moment to start asking the other guy

about... Or maybe it wasn't even when they're

in the exhaust pipes, but there's like one point

where they're trying to sneak around the enemy's

location, and he's starting to ask him about

his headband. Like this is a bad time to make

small talk about why this guy's wearing a headband.

Like you're supposed to be quiet right now. Or

why does Jean -Claude Van Damme stay in the morgue

for like hours on end for no apparent reason?

He's just like hanging out there. Just laying

there? Yeah. Act like he's still dead. They're

not convinced that I'm dead yet. I am a method

actor. I am sticking with this to the end. That

whole scene doesn't need to happen because it's

sort of like, oh, hey, we got a tracking device

on the criminals that snuck away. Oh, someone

else did. We should go figure out who it is.

Oh, look, it's the, you know, American forces.

Oh, OK, we don't need to go investigate their

base. Let's just go and follow our tracker. Yeah.

And I did like that we learned that apparently

you can create, like, the superhumans all you

need is Bags of anabolic steroids and mutagen.

Those are literally the labels on the IV bags.

One said mutagen and the other said anabolic

steroids. Two each. You need to have two IVs

mutagen, two IV steroids. Just like, what is

going on here? Amanda, anything from your list

there that you wanted to point out that we haven't

talked about, like, good things, bad things,

things you noticed? I think I have a little bit

of a block when it comes to some actors. Like,

the guy that played Sagat. His voice and everything

about his mannerisms in this just made me think

of his character in Mystery Men as the Sphinx.

I think he was the exact same. It was kind of

hilarious to me. I liked his character. But dude,

Vanity was just so sassy this whole time. And

I just loved all his little quips and his little

poses that he would do. Like the yeah poses.

And, I don't know, as far as all the other characters

go, I was pretty happy with them. Except for,

like, Dollseem, like, he was definitely a little

different. And I don't think that that dude was

practicing yoga, and that's kind of his thing.

So, a little thrown off by that, but overall,

like, just, like, the tone and the look and the

feel of it, I think that it made me feel like

I was in a video game world, and I think that's

what... what it should do for you. The one thing

that also you talk about some of the characters

there the one thing that threw me off somewhat

at the beginning is how fast they introduce I

think there's like 14 or 15 street characters

from the Street Fighter game that appear in this

film and I swear that they are they name drop

all of them within like the first 15 minutes

of the film like they are all over the place

and they're coming at you with rapid fire like

I got I was a little thrown off at how quickly

they did that, and it didn't really give me much

time to digest who was who and what was going

on. It was just like, here's this war, and every

single person on the screen is gonna be a character

from Street Fighter, and we're just gonna quickly

introduce you to all of them. It seemed like

it was rather rushed for me. Did you guys have

any other opinions as far as characters that

they read? She said, like, Dawson wasn't necessarily

ideal for what she thought. Any other characters

that you guys either thought they did? really

well or really bad when it came to the actual

film. I really liked Zangief. I thought like

he had a lot of the fast lines like change the

channel or a little like Godzilla fight at the

end. I thought was pretty one of the better scenes.

So I did feel like they hit that character really

well. The actor, I think, you know, had a good

accent too. So I thought he was one of the better.

It did also help help provide us with like we

mentioned before, I think Amanda was the one

that mentioned in her little opening statement

that she would have preferred more kind of versus

matchups, more one -on -one showdowns between

some of the fighters. I think we did get that

a little bit with Zangief and Ehonda, I believe,

in that scene that had kind of a showdown, and

obviously we get it with Jean -Claude Van Damme

and Bison. Colonel Guile, I should say, in Bison.

So I did appreciate that. I'm with her, though.

I would have liked to see a few more of those

pairings go off and fight each other. But Matt,

what was your other thoughts on the characters?

We also got Vega and Ryu fighting, too, early

on. I'm just trying to think. Like, Dalcyn, they

should have had a yoga... Just at the very beginning,

had him practicing yoga when M. Bison goes to

use him. Like, just that would have been a nice

nod. And Zangief, they did almost perfectly because,

like... Literally in the booklet it says he's

good natured, he has a great sense of humor,

he loves to fight, but it also kind of lays down

that kind of stupidity where it's like he's more

willing to walk into a punch so long as he can

grab his opponent and drive them into the pavement.

So he's like, I don't know, they did a great

job. Vega's supposed to be Spanish, I don't really

get that feeling from him. He's supposed to be

like a flower in the mouth kind of guy. They

made him more Asian -y, but they got his pretty

boy nature down. I don't know it's hard to complain

about anything like if you look throughout um

pretty much any booklet of the time they got

like every character in except for I don't remember

saying Fei Long but if there's one guy who's

not that different than Ryu and Ken that they

missed and that's all they missed like they even

got DJ who I don't even remember um like I remember

T -Hawk I remember Cami They got everyone in

and they're all really close, if not spot on.

They did a really good job with the characters.

Even if they had to cram 12 characters into a

movie and give none of them enough backstory

except for the two main characters. They still

managed to get them in and managed to make them

okay. The only interesting thing, and like we

said, you couldn't avoid this since you're trying

to create a film out of all this, but not a lot

of them necessarily are... are fighters, I guess,

in a way. Like you have a few that seem to have

a background, but a lot of the other ones are

just kind of just random characters or random

professions that I guess are gonna fight in this.

So that was kind of weird for me a little bit.

Chumlee was like an instant ninja at one point,

like reporter turned instant ninja. Yeah, no

explanation. When it comes down to the critical

reception or how well the movie was received,

obviously you can predict it was not met with

the highest praise by anybody. We already talked

about it's Rotten Tomatoes percent of 12%. Leonard

Maltin said even Jean -Claude Van Damme fans

can't rationalize this bomb time. listed this

film on their top ten worst video game movies

ever, which that seems like a ridiculous list

to create in the first place. That's the list

of the ten movie games that have come out yet.

Right. And a bunch of people did this, like,

game trailers ranked this film as the eighth

worst video game film of all time. I'm like,

the rankings of that mean nothing to me. Somehow,

though, the film did receive two nominations

at the Saturn Awards, Best Science Fiction Film

and Best Supporting Actor for Oh Well Julia.

So I get the I get the supporting actor but science

fiction film really like an invisible jet boat

true true true But yeah, so not great as far

as the reception goes from that as far as Final

thoughts and a score for Street Fighter. Let's

start back with Amanda Anything you did not get

to mention final thoughts and where would you

score this one out of ten? And how does it stack

up to Super Mario Brothers and Double Dragon?

Lord definitely better than what we've been hitting

lately based on the fact that It got at least

the characters right and made me feel like if

I was in some kind of video game realm and it

didn't punch you in the face with the The franchise

like what we saw in double dragon where the video

game was actually in the arcade in the background

We didn't see like a Capcom Logo on like the

barrel chummy was in but it wasn't like something

that was so you know in your faces as the actual

Arcade machine in the background. I'm going to

also Give it points for the fact that I'm probably

to watch this again. I don't want to go too high

though Man, I think I'm gonna give it a four

and a half. I don't know what I gave Double Dragon

Are you saying this is better than Double Dragon

and Super Mario Brothers? Yes Okay, and you did

mention the Capcom barrel, which apparently is

going to be a theme that we just have to keep

watching for every movie. Apparently it's going

to have some type of random video game like product

image placement or whatever. So, four and a half

from Amanda Matt. Final thoughts and what would

you give Street Fighter? Also, the controls for

his mines, you know those things that need a

controller, it was a classic gamepad, which is

another nod. Like, and it's one of those things

where it's like, come on, you don't need a controller

for the mind. But at the same time, it was such

a fun, campy, hilarious scene that I was like,

ah, about 10 seconds in, I'm like, I actually

like this. And to touch back on Chun Li, her

backstory is that she's been tracking the movements

of International Slugging Operation Shadow Lu

and is trying to find the Grandmaster who was

responsible for his father's death. Like, really,

they should have had a scene where she met the

two disgraced fighters who had quit fighting.

And they're like, let's just take down this criminal

organization. Like, because again, it's just

like to make it perfect to the game. They just

needed to add about a one minute scene for every

one character and then it'd be perfect. And you

know, and it's not a perfect movie. And there's

some things that are just a little silly, like

Van Damme's speech. But honestly, I enjoyed this

movie from beginning to end. And I would watch

it again if someone was like, hey, you want to

watch Street Fighter? I'd be like, yeah, not

that I ever have time to watch any movies, but

I would. And I think this might be one of the

best movies we're gonna watch in this whole thing,

sad to say this early on, because even if it's

not a perfect representation of the game, but

it's probably one of the best we're ever gonna

get, it is also a fun movie to watch, because

sometimes it's hard to do both. Honestly, I'm

gonna give it a 7 out of 10. Like, this is better

than some movies I've seen in theaters in the

last year or two. Alright, so we got one person

down in the 4 .5 range, another up in the 7 range.

Dan, who are you siding with more on this one?

I guess I'm a little bit in the middle. I think,

like Matt mentioned, if you view this as a campy

1960s -esque Batman movie that is on the nose,

is not trying to be serious, I think it's much

more adorable. I do think maybe people at the

time thought it was trying to be serious, so

I don't think it's as bad as some of the... Well,

we've only done two so far, but I feel like we

have worse ones coming up. I at least thought

there were some humorous moments that were intended

to be humorous that were ineffective. Some of

the characters I thought were... They did try,

like, I thought there was effort put behind here,

like, there was an affection for the source material

and they try to show it. Now, like, the, you

know, the plots and the writing and there's a

lot of things that are just, like, non -sensical

and things that just don't make sense and what

have you. It's, you know, it's... got issues

for sure but I think you know overall I enjoyed

my time more than I like was you know shaking

my head and wanting to stop watching it like

I was with Double Dragon so I would give it a

five out of ten which is for this series might

be as high as I go who knows we'll find out so

a four and a half a five and a seven for you

guys I will agree with some of the stuff Matt

that you were saying like I would watch this

again but I would not Watch I would watch this

again in a group Yeah, like if I had a group

of friends that wanted to put this on and like

Have some campy fun and make fun of it at the

same time or point stuff out and make an experience

out of it I think that's that would be something

I would do I don't know if I would watch this

on my own sitting alone in my living room like

That I don't know if I would be able to do again

but in a group I think it's fun if you go in

knowing what you're getting into I think it can

be fun and I agree with what Dan said there's

not as many like I need to walk out of the room

moments like you had with Double Dragon it's

just not that level of bad so it's interesting

because it's taken on you know I guess somewhat

of a similar type of video game obviously Street

Fighter you have a lot more versus an actual

straight fighting but a better representation

for me of the game and a slightly better film

overall if this is as good as we're getting from

like what a couple of you are saying like I am

scared to go down the rest of this path but I'm

hoping that there's a couple others that'll at

least be better than this so here's hoping to

that but I will agree with Dan on this one I'm

gonna give this one a five out of ten I'm not

willing to go above five but i am willing to

meet it right in the halfway point five out of

ten for me so you have to let us know who you

agree with more and where you would fall on street

fighter and if you agree like apparently all

of us did that it is the best video game film

we have seen so far regardless of how many uh...

listed on for worse video game films which is

just ridiculous but uh... Next week guys, we're

going only one year into the future So we started

with Super Mario Brothers in 1993 1994 gave us

both Double Dragon and Street Fighter and now

we move to 1995 next week when we will be covering

a very similar that we already mentioned which

would be Mortal Kombat so Amanda excitement level

for Mortal Kombat next time not next week, but

next time we do the video game series I am on

11. I love Mortal Kombat Super fan of the series

played every possible Mortal Kombat game, and

the films I could watch over and over and over

again, the music I could listen to on a CD in

my car while I'm driving around, I have. I'm

looking forward to it, definitely. So apparently

Amanda's looking forward to Mortal Kombat is

what I got out of that. Matt, what's your excitement

level to move from Street Fighter to Mortal Kombat?

I believe I've mentioned this earlier. Mortal

Kombat is probably the only video game movie

that's going to top Street Fighter to be the

closest, most accurate, and also a decent enough

movie. That said, Christopher Lambert. um...

should never play a hero character he's like

the evil looking and sounding guy i've ever seen

and i don't know why he's getting cast as a hero

so it's gonna be weird with him as raiden but

other than that it's probably going to be an

actual decent experience if i remember correctly

from seeing it twenty years ago dan are you excited

as these two to venture into the mortal kombat

world? well i did like it when i was a kid like

i remember liking it so much i went and saw annihilation

in theaters and uh... given me nightmares ever

since. So, yeah, I'm curious to go back and revisit

it because it's been a while. I remember thinking

it was good and I could be wrong. We'll see.

That never happens in the movie world. You think

something was great as your child did and then

it becomes completely ruined. I have actually

seen multiple of the spin -off films and the

different like little, I don't know what you

want to call them, little short type. Mortal

Kombat legacy back stories that they've done

with Mortal Kombat legacy I've seen a lot of

those but it's been a long time I think since

I've seen the actual Mortal Kombat film so I'm

looking forward that you didn't remember if it's

Exactly how I remember it there if it's slightly

different now watching it through the our lens

as we go through this series So I'm gonna wear

my Mortal Kombat t -shirt For like 48 hours straight

while we watch this. I'm gonna sleep in it and

everything Alright and until we do the podcast

on here as well. Alright, so looking forward

to going to Mortal Kombat next our fourth in

the video game series again Let us know your

thoughts on Street Fighter if we did it justice

or if you feel like we should have been higher

or lower On it other than that We just always

want to get you guys going to watch the or listen

to the regular episodes as well. We just did

obviously a review on Captain America Civil War.

We'll have a review of X -Men Apocalypse coming

up and then we'll of course continue our Miyazaki

spotlight as we move from the Castle of Cagliostro

to the second film in his filmography. So a lot

of stuff coming from us that we want you guys

to chime in and keep up with. So as far as our

individual Twitter accounts if you want to keep

up to us and engage with us on a daily basis.

Amanda, what is your Twitter handle if they want

to talk to you? Hard Candy Mandy, eyes know why.

And Dan, what about yours? I am at Movie Revolts.

Dan, why don't you also we don't get to do it

a lot because I just assumed that everybody listens

to it But maybe they don't why don't you quickly

also tell people? About your other show that

you do and what kind of stuff you cover and what

the title is and how they can find that Okay.

Yeah, sure. It's talking in circles. It's also

a geek ass radio We cover some other things mostly

geek general topics The next episode coming out

we're actually playing the classic desert island

game So where we try to determine what movie

TV book food and famous person we'd bring on

a desert island if we got stuck there So kind

of just random conversations like that They do

a lot of games over there, and it's a lot of

fun to listen to Occasionally talk about food

as well, so they can make you hungry at the same

time But I would definitely encourage anybody

that listens to us to check talking in circles

out as well because they do a lot of fun stuff

Matt if someone wants to talk to you on Twitter.

How do they do that? They could do it at Fridley

sent and if you think I ran this movie too high

come and fight me, bro Street Fight. And my Twitter

is at Optimus Solo. If you want to tweet to us

in general as the show, you can at CinemaGeekCast.

And then obviously, like we said, go to GeekCastRadioNetwork

.com, find the episode post, make some comments

there, and we will interact and reply to you.

But other than that, that is it for us for this

week. Be sure to check in next week for another

chance to listen to The Cinema Geeks. Sonic Boom!

Tiger knee