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Apparently its theStreet Fightermovies 25th anniversary this year.
Its hard to imagine its been 25 entire years (a quarter century!)
since such a gem was introduced to the public.
Its not a high bar.
TheTomb Raiderfilmsare more or less second-rateNational Treasurefilms, which themselves are more or less third-rateIndiana Jonesfilms.
Sure, there are some pretty good video-game movies.Silent Hillis a decent screensaver.Mortal Kombatis fun.Detective Pikachuis surprisingly well-made.
And none of this addresses the solid anime adaptations of games such asPokemonandStreet Fighteritself.
I mentioned anime; dont fill my mentions telling me I didnt.
TheStreet Fightermovie, however, does not care about what you think.
Street Fighter: The Movieis good, actually.
Even the opening credits areperfect.
After the soothing tones of the Universal Studios opening, the logo for the movieslamsonto the globe!
Why Allied Nations and not United Nations?
I dont know, maybe the license was too expensive.
None of it matters.
What matters is our first scene with M. Bison in his overproduced villain base.
Does it have goods in uniforms?
Why, yes it does.
Does it have a large TV screen made up of a bunch of smaller CRT televisions?
How could it not?
Bison quickly snaps one soldiers neck and mutters, Pathetic.
Raul Julia is anactorand heacts the shit out of this movie.
Like superhero movies, video-game films often have a villain problem.
The heroes are fun, but thevillainsare caricatures of evil meant to be overcome.
Here, its the opposite.
Bison is just so likable and charming that youneedhim on the screen.
Backing up a second, lets remember thatRaul Julia was dying of cancerwhen he made this film.
(Julia died of a stroke two months before the film premiered in theaters.)
He even brought his family with him to the set so they could spend more time together.
Heacts the shit out of it.
Take the most famous scene in the movie.
You dont need much context for it, because nothing in theStreet Fightermovie has any actual, discernible context.
Whats important is thatStreet Fighterflips the script.
Rather than Bison getting a long monologue, Chun-Li gets the monologue.
And rather than Chun-Li getting the badass line, Bison does.
Why am I writing more here?
That one scene gives so much in so little, and it doesnt even give a fuck.
Speaking of not giving a fuck, Jean-Claude Van Dammes Guile is fascinating.
His opening speech through news cameras is just as corny as youd expect.
When Bison (who I guess sort of hacks into the camera system to respond, question mark?)
says, You will choke on those words, Guile responds, Anytime, dickhead.
Its this batshit nonsense tone that would have made this an amazing Adult Swim original movie.
Oh, and Ryu and Ken are con men pretending to sell weapons.
If youve read this far and havent playedStreet Fighter II,I dont know what to tell you.
Those bags, in very normal fashion, say, DNA MUTAGENS, just so the scientists know.
The for-comedy-purposes-only henchmen ditching their boss because the audience likes them and they should.
The lead female character disguising herself as a dancer to break into the enemy base.
Those are major defining moments, but they leave out the wackiness of the early 90s.
Street Fighteris the embodiment of early 90s action-comedy.
Forget the actors the entire movie chews the scenery.
Every scene is lifted or mutated from something youd seen before.
Do you really need a story?
Does it matter why Bison is fighting Guile if theyre fancy-kicking each other in the face?
At the end of the day, its all set dressing.
Add quirky dialogue, give everyone whatever motivations seem fun.
And thats the thing:Street Fighteris fun.
Fun because none of it makes sense and your brain dies a little trying to stitch the story together.
Fun because each performer acts as if theyre in an entirely different movie from the others.
Fun because the movie understands its weird as hell and leans in.
The movie never tries to justify its existence it just is, a Venus born from an oyster.
Even better, the movie apparently had full oversight from Capcom, the creators of the game.
Capcom financed most of the movie themselves.
As much of a mess the movie is, its also Capcoms fault, and thats deeply wonderful.
Even the company that made the game didnt understand it.
Mike Druckeris a stand-up and television writer.
