The late, great Raul Julia plays an insane dictator named M. Bison who rules the roost in "Shadaloo", a fictional South Asian country. Currently he's holding a bunch of hostages for a staggering 20 billion dollars, and is at work on a process of turning ordinary soldiers into inhuman fighting beasts. Fortunately, he is opposed by the dedicated heroes of the "Allied Nations", led by Colonel Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Other characters caught up in the melee include hustlers Ken (Damian Chapa) & Ryu (Byron Mann),and a reporter named Chun-Li (eternally gorgeous Ming-Na Wen) who can't be taken at face value.

Big budget adaptation of the popular Capcom video game throws in everything but the kitchen sink for the sake of an entertaining show. Don't even bother attempting to watch it if you want to be intellectually stimulated or want anything resembling "high art". It's purely for action fans who want to be dazzled by spectacle (although not necessarily fans of the game). It's got plenty to keep it lively: hilariously tacky sets, an over the top nature, tons of explosions, vibrant widescreen photography, and some colourful characters. Subtle it ain't, but it is amusing, even if lacking the real wit one would expect from debuting director Steven E. de Souza, whose credits as a screenwriter include "48 Hrs." and "Commando". As you can see, de Souza gives it some semblance of a story, instead of just having one fight after another, which is what you might expect of a video game adaptation.

The international cast features some classy thespians like Julia, Simon Callow, and Roshan Seth, in addition to familiar faces like Australian songbird Kylie Minogue, Grand L. Bush of "Die Hard", Miguel A. Nunez Jr. of "The Return of the Living Dead", and Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface in two of the more recent "Texas Chain Saw" pictures). Ordinarily it would be depressing to watch an esteemed actor like Julia in their cinematic swan song (especially since Julia clearly looks ill),but he definitely seemed determined to go out in a blaze of glory, and he makes M. Bison a wonderfully grandiose, scenery devouring bad guy. Van Damme is good, and charismatic, as usual, but he can't help but look bland in comparison. Ms. Wen is a delight.

Is this a "good" movie? This viewer is not going to go out of his way to make a case for it being one, but it's damn entertaining. Sometimes that's all that matters.

Eight out of 10.

STREET FIGHTER (1994)

This movie has aged surprisingly well. It's always been bad but now it's so bad that it's kind of amazing. Based on the kick ass video game the makers do a crappy job of trying to string together a plausible storyline. But it does manage to have some over the top action sequences and some truly cringeworthy moments like Ming Na Wen delivering her best Chun Li speech before fly kicking a charismatic Raul Julia as Bison. Van Damme is also pretty hot and fun as "super american" Guile. The movie is overly fun and best of all there's never a dull moment.

Budget: $35m Box Office: $99m

7.5/10

"Street Fighter" is a bad film according to nearly everyone...though it managed to make a ton of money at the box office. It currently has a pitiful score of 3.9 and is #80 on IMDB's infamous Bottom 100...the 100 worstrated major release films of all time. It's not surprising, as movies based on videogames stink...with pictures like "Super Mario Brothers", "BloodRayne" and "Mortal Kombat: Annihiliation" also on this list of terrible films. And, that is why I decided to watch the film...to get a good laugh. But is it really THAT bad??

The games Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are very similar...side-scrolling fighting games. The biggest difference is that Mortal Kombat was a bit bloodier...otherwise the two had a lot of similarities. In fact, Jean Claude Van Damme had his choice, as he was offered the lead in both films at the same time by competing studios! Either way, he was screwed!

In this particular movie, a coalition of armed forces have invaded some fictitious country in order to oust a maniac, General Bison (Raul Julia),from control. The leader of the coalition forces is Colonel Guile (Van Damme) and you know sooner or later they're going to have a boss battle and good will ultimately triumph over evil. But, in between, there would be prison escapes, other baddie fights, and well, a LOT of talking!

So is it bad? Heck yeah! But it might not be for the reason you think. While I am not a huge Jean Claude Van Damme fan, he is not the problem with the movie. Sure, he's wooden...but that's all the writers gave him in the script and they didn't give him enough time doing what he does best...fight. No, the reasons it's a terrible film are twofold. First, the picture looks too much like a cartoon. Cartoony uniforms, cartoony and one dimensional baddies and it just looked cheap and dumb...so although the maniacal General is supposed to be a threat to the world, he comes off more like a villain from a Popeye cartoon! And, the biggest problem with the film was Raul Julia. It's sad, since he could be an amazing actor and it was his final film before dying so young...but he was simply terrible, overacting and chewing up scenery right and left and the film focused almost exclusively on his dumb character and not enough on the hero. Overall, a mess of a film that would make adults bored and children, well, despite it being a 'nice' Van Damme film it's still awfully violent and I wouldn't even let most kids watch it. A terrible and misguided film which earns a 2 simply because there really are a few films out there that are worse!