Street Fighting Damme

Why Street Fighter (1994)? Simple - it was featured in two hilarious bad-movie podcasts: Film Sack and How Did This Get Made?

For anyone too young to have spent time in a video arcade, Street Fighter was an 80's video fighting game that I never played (I was too old - more of the Asteroids/Missile Command generation). In the movie version, an evil warlord, M. Bison (!?!), played by Raul Julia (!???!?!) in his last feature role (!@#$%?!) rules the Asian port city of Shadaloo. He takes a busload of aid workers hostage and demands 40 billion dollars!

The Allied Nation forces, lead by American Yankee non-European Jean-Claude van Damme, must rescue the hostages and take down Bison. His joined by a raft of player and non-player characters from the game. There are fights, but not many, and none (as far as I remember) in streets. There is humor, but not much.

So, if you came for the fights, you will be disappointed. If you thought it would be funny, you will be dissatisfied. If you are a fan of the video game - I don't know, confused? It seems that M. Bison was  the black boxer character in the game (Mike Tyson, get it?). The rest of the cast of characters seem to be part inspired by the game, part made up or mixed up.

So, it wasn't terrible, but not good. You do get to see Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li in a cheongsam try to kick Raul Julia's head off. So there's that.

In conclusion, a sad end to Raul Julia's career - he will always be remembered best for his Gomez Addams. But he really sold the Bison character and almost got JCVD in the end.