Oh brother, you could build a wonderful documentary around the making of Steven E. De Souza’s “Street Fighter” that would be so much better than the actual movie. The behind the scenes tale of the making of what was supposed to be a blockbuster film is absolutely fascinating, funny, and just downright entertaining. In 1991, the video game “Street Fighter” virtually changed the face of video games, pop culture, and competitive gaming forever. Universal Pictures led the charge in banking on the game’s success by adapting the hit video game in to a feature film.
What began as an action film about a small group of commandos fighting a horrifying despot, turned in to a clusterfuck production of awkward comedy, bad acting, baffling casting, and horrendous dialogue. All the while the producers force in every character from the video games that they could in its short run time, whether it makes sense to the movie or not. What’s hilarious is down the line, they forget to include an actual street fight in the film. Sure, there’s a fight in a basement, a fight in an office, and a climactic fight in a humongous laboratory, but there’s no street fighting to be had. But that’s the least of the movie’s problems. It spends so much time setting up the sequels and paying fan service that it never stops to create a compelling narrative.
When General M. Bison (Raul Julia) takes high-ranking hostages and demands $20 billion in ransom, he pushes an already incendiary crisis to the brink of global conflict. Meanwhile, Colonel William F. Guile’s (Jean-Claude Van Damme) rescue mission remains stalled until the hostages’ location can be determined. Guile and his British intelligence officer, Lieutenant Cammy, must recruit two unlikely heroes, small-time hustlers Ken Masters and Ryu Hoshi in an audacious plan to locate the sadistic general’s futuristic secret fortress. But their entire plan is nearly derailed at the last moment when GNT news correspondent Chun-Li Zang, who wants much more than a story, intervenes.
A lot of what unfolds just doesn’t make a ton of sense to the point where the producers don’t even care about casting the proper nationality for the respective heroes. The nationality was a big part of what made the video game so distinctive. Honda is Samoan, Guile is German, Bison is Latino, while Dee Jay is also Latino. None of that is particularly important to the overall development of the film, as everything we love about the games are tossed out in favor of some truly unrelatable heroes, and so much scattered sub-plots that either go unresolved, or are resolved sloppily. The only performers that give their all in the film are Ming Na Wen, Raul Julia, and Van Damme, all of whom know what kind of movie they’re in, and just dive in head first.
Ming Na Wen’s take on Chun-Li is so strong she could have easily led the movie instead of Van Damme. “Street Fighter” is that movie that just hurts so good. “Street Fighter” is downright awkward and terrible, but damn it’s fun to experience, even without the nostalgia goggles on. It’s a smaller look in to what’s turned in to a large sub-genre of horrendous films adapted from hit video games.
Can someone get started on that documentary, please?
The new collectible Steelbook from Mill Creek Entertainment includes new interviews with director Steven E. De Souza, co-star Ming-Na Wen, co-star Damian Chapa and producer Edward R. Pressman. There’s the new featurette about Van Damme @ Univesal, a segment about how much the video game differs from the film. There’s also a discussion with composer Composer Graeme Revell, a segment involving the Making of Street Fighter, and of course Outtakes and Deleted Scenes. There’s Archival audio commentary about the production included, as well as a slew of storyboard and video game sequences. Finally, to enhance the experience, included inside the steelbook is a collectible novelty Bison buck.